Team Mastery

If you’ve ever been part of a great team, you know the difference is exponential. Energy is higher. Progress feels smoother. Outcomes are stronger.

And yet, in complex environments, truly great teams are rare.

Drawing on years of experience across software, product development, healthcare, and sport, Geoff Watts identifies five characteristics consistently present in exceptional teams:

• Self-Improvement — a commitment to learning and evolving
• Quality — pride in the work and attention to standards
• Unity — trust, alignment, and shared purpose
• Audacity — courage to challenge, experiment, and stretch
• Delivery — the ability to turn intent into results

Together, these form the SQUAD framework — a practical lens for understanding what team greatness looks like in action.

But this isn’t just a model to admire. Team Mastery outlines 50 concrete milestones: observable behaviours, practices, and achievements that teams can work toward, measure, and celebrate. Whether you’re building a new team or refining a high-performing one, these milestones provide a structured, step-by-step roadmap.

Greatness isn’t a fixed state. It’s a continuous journey of deliberate growth.

This book is for teams — and the leaders who support them — who want to move beyond “working well enough.”

It’s for you if:

• You want a shared language for what great teamwork looks like
• Your team performs inconsistently and you’re not sure why
• You want practical steps rather than abstract theory
• You care about culture and performance equally
• You want to build momentum through visible progress

It’s ideal for Scrum teams, product teams, leadership teams, and any group working in complex, collaborative environments.

If you believe teams are the engine of meaningful work — and you want yours to grow stronger, deeper, and more capable over time — Team Mastery will guide the journey.