I was recently asked by someone at a customer organization for some tips on how to write a talk about Team Topologies [TT] (she was Head of Information Security, but this article applies to almost any role). This post summarizes my suggestions for how to write a talk about TT for your own organization and/or for public events like meetups or conferences.

A good starting point for planning and writing a talk on Team Topologies would be my slides on Speakerdeck here: https://speakerdeck.com/matthewskelton The slides with the TT logo will be the most relevant to begin with. 

You might find some useful material here, too: https://techbeacon.com/contributors/matthew-skelton such as these three articles:

• https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/forget-monoliths-vs-microservices-cognitive-load-what-matters
• https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/how-reduce-cognitive-load-increase-flow-5-real-world-examples
• https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/are-poor-team-interactions-killing-your-devops-transformation

Take a look at our mini-books here https://teamtopologies.com/minibooks – there are some useful articles in those. 

The infographics might help https://teamtopologies.com/infographics as might the talks listed here https://teamtopologies.com/talks

Finally, I would take some inspiration from the industry examples here: https://teamtopologies.com/examples  The examples best suited to most organizations are:

• Uswitch https://teamtopologies.com/industry-examples/organizational-evolution-accelerating-delivery-of-comparison-services-uswitch
• NAV https://teamtopologies.com/industry-examples/how-the-internal-technology-platform-creates-value-at-nav
• Wealth Wizards https://teamtopologies.com/industry-examples/evolving-teams-and-software-at-wealth-wizards-using-team-topologies
• Improbable https://teamtopologies.com/industry-examples/virtual-worlds-using-team-topologies-at-improbable-to-transform-teams-technology-reliability-and-customer-satisfaction

You might even construct a talk based on the case studies such as “How do organizations like [ABC Corp] use TT platforms and Enabling teams to improve flow and business agility?” If I were writing that talk, I would structure it like this:

1. The challenge: achieving fast flow whilst limiting team cognitive load
2. The solution (or part of the solution): TT platforms and Enabling teams (including the possible new term “flow platform”) – why, what
3. Set of examples: Uswitch, Wealth Wizards, Improbable, NAV – the dynamics between Platforms and Enabling teams (how they work together)
4. Wrap: key take-aways for [ABC Corp]

But feel free to ignore this and do your own version 🙂 

One thing to consider is whether you could write a talk that could become public, with the slides published on Speakerdeck (or similar). Making a talk suitable for public use means you get the option to give the talk at meetups and conferences, which – although might be a scary prospect – really opens the door to wider conversations and insights. 

I hope this helps!