Speedboat — Facilitation Rotation Guide
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Why Rotate?
- Shared ownership — Speedboat belongs to the team, not one person
- Builds facilitation skills across the group
- Prevents single points of failure (holidays, illness)
- Different facilitators bring different perspectives to what gets surfaced
How It Works
- Facilitation rotates weekly, covering Monday Set Course, Wednesday Course Check, and Friday Landing for that week
- Route Planning (fortnightly) is jointly facilitated by the Engineering lead and Product lead — this does not rotate
- The rotation follows a fixed order so everyone knows when their week is coming
- Facilitation rotates, but the Captain remains accountable for board hygiene, WIP discipline, and ceremony quality
A WIP item is a meaningful unit of work the team is steering, not an individual ticket or subtask.
Captain vs Facilitator
- The facilitator runs the meetings for the week: keeps time, follows the guide, and makes sure the room hears the right questions.
- The Captain is the engineering lead for the boat: owns WIP enforcement, exception handling, blocker escalation, and the overall health of the operating rhythm.
- One person can be both Captain and facilitator in a given week, but rotation does not remove Captain accountability.
Rotation Schedule
| Week | Facilitator |
|---|---|
| W1 | [Name] |
| W2 | [Name] |
| W3 | [Name] |
| W4 | [Name] |
Fill in during Week 0. If someone is out, the next person in the rotation covers and the order shifts.
Facilitator Checklist
Monday — Set Course (5 min prep)
- Pull up the board
- Note items still in flight from last week
- Check WIP: Preview ≤3, Build ≤3 meaningful work items
- Flag any new urgent Run items
- Have the Landing Log open (to reference last week’s outcomes)
Wednesday — Course Check (2 min prep)
- Review Monday’s intended Landings
- Glance at the board — anything visibly stuck or unmoved?
- Prepare to ask: “Red, amber, or green?” for each intended Landing
Friday — The Landing (10 min prep)
- List everything that became a Landing this week
- List every active Preview that needs a decision
- Have the Landing Log open and ready to update live
- Have the Weekly Snapshot template ready to fill in after the meeting
- Note any reactive Run work that hit the team
Facilitator Tips
| Do | Don’t |
|---|---|
| Keep to time — use a visible timer if it helps | Let discussions run open-ended |
| Ask questions, don’t give answers | Dominate the conversation |
| Call on quiet people: “Any blockers we haven’t heard?” | Assume silence means everything’s fine |
| Park side conversations: “Let’s take that offline” | Let two people debate a technical detail for 10 minutes |
| Update the board live during the meeting | Leave board updates as a “later” task |
| Fill in the Weekly Snapshot immediately after Friday’s Landing | Wait until Monday — you’ll forget the detail |
If You’re Facilitating for the First Time
- Read the ceremony guide for each session (Set Course, Course Check, The Landing) — they have the full script and timing
- Follow the script literally the first time. It’s designed to keep you on track.
- Don’t worry about being perfect. The ceremonies are simple by design. If you keep to time and make sure every Preview gets a Friday decision, you’ve done the job.
- Ask for feedback. At the end of your week, ask the team: “Anything I should pass on to next week’s facilitator?”
Handover
At the end of your facilitation week, give the next facilitator a 1-minute heads up:
- Anything carrying over that they should know about
- Any Previews approaching their timebox limit
- Any known blockers or absences for next week
This can be a Slack message. Keep it lightweight.
If WIP is already over the limit, blockers need escalation, or incident trade-offs are unresolved, include the Captain in the handover rather than assuming the next facilitator will absorb it.