When To Add More Structure
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Use this guide when the core weekly loop is working, but the team needs more structure to keep it healthy.
You do not need all of this to get started. Start the rhythm first.
Add the next layer only when a clear pain appears.
When To Use This Guide
Reach for this guide when one or more of these things becomes true:
- the team keeps arriving at Monday without enough shaped work
- new requests are entering the system with no clear place to go
- Previews are drifting or Build items are getting too large
- the team wants a clearer monthly learning loop
- stakeholders want a clearer summary of what landed
- more than one boat now depends on the same people or platform work
If those pains are not showing up yet, stay with the simpler weekly version.
Add These In Order
1. Route Planning
Add Route Planning when the team needs a better way to shape the next 2–4 weeks.
Use it for:
- deciding what needs Preview before Build
- slicing larger work into meaningful Landings
- keeping non-urgent work out of mid-week Build churn
2. An Unshaped Backlog
Add a clear unshaped backlog when incoming work is arriving from too many directions.
Use it for:
- customer feedback
- roadmap items
- Sales requests
- engineering observations
- leadership asks
The goal is simple: new work becomes visible before it becomes active.
3. Learning Review
Add Learning Review after the first 4 weekly Landing cycles, or once the team wants a slower feedback loop about how the model itself is working.
Use it for:
- WIP patterns
- Landing mix patterns
- Run load patterns
- friction in the rhythm itself
4. Evaluation And Team Feedback
Add Trial Evaluation and Team Survey if you are running a formal 4–6 week trial and need a clear keep / change / stop decision.
Use them when:
- leadership wants evidence before continuing
- the team wants a more explicit retrospective on whether the framework is helping
- you may expand Speedboat to another team
5. Stakeholder Summary
Add Monthly Stakeholder Summary when people outside the boat want a lightweight outward-facing view of what has landed.
Use it when:
- leadership wants a monthly summary
- adjacent teams want a clearer signal of progress
- you need a simple outward communication layer without adding another weekly reporting burden
Derive it from the Landing Log.
6. Fleet Sync
Add Fleet Sync only when more than one boat is operating and cross-boat coordination is becoming real.
Use it for:
- dependencies between boats
- shared platform priorities
- multi-boat risks
Do not add it for a single boat.
New teams vs mature teams
New teams need:
- one board
- visible Preview / Build / Run categorisation
- WIP limits
- 1–2 intended Landings each week
- the Monday / Wednesday / Friday rhythm
- one Landing Log
WIP limits apply to meaningful work items, not individual tickets or subtasks.
More mature teams may add:
- Route Planning
- an unshaped backlog and shaped queue
- Learning Review
- trial evaluation and team feedback
- stakeholder summary
- Fleet Sync
The difference is not that mature teams follow a different framework.
The difference is that they need more structure because the pain has appeared.
A simple rule
If the weekly rhythm is still giving the team clarity, do not add more structure yet.
If the weekly rhythm is no longer enough to shape work, absorb demand, or coordinate safely, add the next layer that matches the pain.