Finding Our Team Values with AI

Our journey to define the product team’s values was a blend of collaboration, reflection, and, surprisingly, the power of AI. Here’s how we uncovered the values that drive us forward and keep us aligned when the going gets tough.

Phase I: Gathering and Organizing

The first step was collecting a massive list of potential values. I started by pulling together values from across the organization—those from our neighbors in Customer Success and Engineering—as well as moments from our team Slack where we celebrated each other (weird points system included—but that’s another blog!).

After gathering everything, I needed to make sense of it. Enter ChatGPT. I fed it all the values and asked, “These are values from around the business — what commonality do you see?” ChatGPT organized the values into themed lists. I then followed up with, “What values are we missing?” Now, I had a more complete picture.

With my massive list in hand, I broke out the Post-Its and started categorizing. I color-coded each value based on its origin—Customer Success, Engineering, or our team—for my own tracking, though it wasn’t as important for the team. Frequency was a key data point too, so if a value appeared multiple times from different sources, it still got a Post-It.

Once the list was ready, I gathered the team and handed each person a writing pad. I stood in front of the whiteboard, held up each Post-It, and asked, “Is this a Product Team value?”

• If we unanimously agreed, it went to one side of the board.
• If there was a mix, we debated.
• If it was a unanimous “no,” it went to the opposite side.

Some of the mixed-result Post-Its stayed in limbo, but that was okay. We’d revisit them in later phases.

Phase II: Thematic Grouping and Digital Refinement

After we had our initial “yes” list, it was time to group the values into themes. I sat back, played some music, and let my team do the debating and organizing. Once they had themes for each set of values, our Principal Product Designer took the initiative to name the themes—bringing a creative flair to the exercise.

With the Post-its neatly stapled into themed bundles, I moved the process online. Using Confluence’s whiteboard feature (though any whiteboard tool works), I recreated the Post-Its digitally. Each theme had its own section, and the next challenge was figuring out how to battle-test these values.

Phase III: Testing Values Against Real Scenarios

This part required a little creativity. While it was easy to say that all of these values were great in theory, the real test would be how they held up in actual work situations. So, I came up with a series of scenarios—some real challenges our team had faced, and others hypothetical:

• Engineering blocks a crucial feature.
• We need to recover a deleted database.
• An enterprise client requires a quick, complex solution.
• One of the team members makes a huge mistake.
• An unexpected outcome arises from a meeting.
• A roadmap item faces serious delays.
• We’re kicking off a big roadmap item.
• You’re having a rough day.

In a synchronous virtual meeting, I let each team member pick a digital sticker (Confluence had cute emoji stickers) and asked, “In this scenario, what value do you want from your team?” They placed their dots on the draft values they felt were most important.

Additionally, I asked them each to identify which value most represented them, and which one most represented each teammate. This was a final check to make sure we didn’t miss anything important with our scenarios.

This exercise was invaluable. We quickly saw patterns emerge—some values were consistently chosen across multiple scenarios. We gathered all the values with more than two votes and moved them to the next phase.

Phase IV: Defining and Refining Values

Now that we had a solid list of values, it was time to define them. Here’s where ChatGPT came in handy again. I used it to define each value and then added my own flair to reflect our team’s unique dynamics. I created a table in Confluence with the values, their definitions, and invited the team to provide feedback.

I asked them to consider:

• Does the definition sound like a good teammate?
• How could these values be weaponized? What kind of malicious compliance might occur?
• Are we missing any elements of a good teammate?
• How would you change the draft definition?

To deepen the discussion, I introduced the concept of “positive antonyms.” This was an idea I’d developed over time: when you value something, you inherently give up a little of something else. It’s not a simple binary of good vs. bad, but rather recognizing that compromises are always being made. For each value, I asked ChatGPT to generate a positive antonym. This exercise helped us explore the trade-offs, asking, “By valuing this, do we lose something important?”

It was a tough exercise, but it was worth the effort. The antonyms forced us to think more critically about what we truly valued.

Phase V: Final Review and Implementation

With the team’s thoughtful feedback, I juiced up the language, ensuring each value was clear, actionable, and reflective of our shared priorities. I also used my “boss filter” to ensure that these values would be sustainable and measurable long-term. A huge shoutout goes to my Cerkl colleague, Maddy Rieman, whose feedback process inspired how we’d incorporate these values into our peer and team reviews going forward.

Finally, I published the values on Confluence for all to see and wrote a letter to the team explaining our journey. Here’s a look at it:

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Conclusion: A Collaborative and AI-Driven Journey

This process was a true reflection of who we are as a team. Without ChatGPT, the process would have taken significantly longer, and it certainly wouldn’t have been as easy to organize all those ideas into a cohesive set of values in just a few weeks.

From sticky notes and whiteboards to scenarios and feedback sessions, our journey to find our team’s values was a mix of AI, creativity, and thoughtful collaboration. I couldn’t be prouder of where we landed, and I’m excited to see how these values continue to shape our team in the years to come.

• Playlist: [Here’s mine!]
• Post-its in many colors
• Yes/No Paddles or a Writing Pad
• Sharpies
• Some sort of whiteboard program: Miro, Mural, Confluence—whatever works for your team