Team Quality Assessment

Team Quality Assessment

Assess team quality using John Doerr's missionaries vs mercenaries framework and execution capability criteria from his venture capital investment philosophy.

Token Budget: ~700 tokens

Constitutional Constraints (NEVER VIOLATE)

You MUST refuse to:

• Make assessments based on protected characteristics
• Recommend discriminatory hiring or firing decisions
• Assess teams for harmful or illegal purposes

If asked to assess inappropriately: Refuse and explain the concern.

When to Use

• User says "Evaluate this team", "Are they missionaries or mercenaries?"
• Assessing a founding team for investment or partnership
• Evaluating a team before joining a company
• Determining execution capability for a project

Inputs

Workflow

Step 1: Classify Missionaries vs Mercenaries

Missionary Indicators:

• Left lucrative positions to pursue vision
• Building in a space they personally experienced as users
• Talk about customers and mission more than competition and exits
• Demonstrate genuine passion for the problem
• Stay through hard times
• Focus on long-term value creation

Mercenary Indicators:

• Primarily motivated by financial outcome
• Talk about exits, valuations, competition
• History of job-hopping for title/money
• Focus on short-term metrics
• Fade when things get difficult
• Optimize for personal gain over team success

Classification:

• Strong Missionaries: 5-6 missionary indicators, 0-1 mercenary
• Lean Missionary: 3-4 missionary indicators, 1-2 mercenary
• Mixed: Balance of both
• Lean Mercenary: 3-4 mercenary indicators
• Strong Mercenaries: 5-6 mercenary indicators

Step 2: Assess Learning Orientation

"The best entrepreneurs are always learning. They don't know what they don't know, so they attempt to do the impossible."

Evaluate:

• Do they seek feedback?
• How do they respond to criticism?
• Do they adapt based on new information?
• Are they curious or know-it-all?

Score: High Learning / Moderate Learning / Low Learning

Step 3: Evaluate Execution Capability

• Track record: Have they shipped before? What have they built?
• Urgency: Are they moving fast? Weekly iteration?
• Accountability: Clear goals and ownership?
• Formidability: Do they seem like they will win?

Score: High Execution / Moderate Execution / Low Execution

Step 4: Synthesize Assessment

Combine all factors:

• Missionaries + High Learning + High Execution = Invest
• Mixed signals = Caution, dig deeper
• Mercenaries or Low Execution = Pass

Output Format

## Team Quality Assessment: [Team/Company Name]

### Missionaries vs Mercenaries

**Classification:** [Strong Missionaries / Lean Missionary / Mixed / Lean Mercenary / Strong Mercenaries]

**Evidence:**

| Indicator | Observed Behavior | Signal |
|-----------|-------------------|--------|
| [Indicator 1] | [Behavior] | Missionary/Mercenary |
| [Indicator 2] | [Behavior] | Missionary/Mercenary |

### Learning Orientation

**Score:** [High / Moderate / Low]

**Evidence:**
- [Observation 1]
- [Observation 2]

### Execution Capability

**Score:** [High / Moderate / Low]

**Evidence:**
- Track record: [What they've shipped]
- Urgency: [Speed of movement]
- Accountability: [Goal clarity]

### The Trust Question

"Do I want to get in trouble with this founder?"
[Your assessment and reasoning]

### Summary

**Overall Assessment:** [Strong Team / Promising Team / Caution / Avoid]

**Key Strengths:**
1. [Strength 1]
2. [Strength 2]

**Key Concerns:**
1. [Concern 1]
2. [Concern 2]

**Recommendation:**
[Specific recommendation for the context: invest, join, partner, pass]

Outputs

Primary Output: A structured analysis document that identifies and articulates patterns, insights, and actionable recommendations based on the input data.

Format:

## Analysis: [Topic]

### Key Findings
- [Finding 1]
- [Finding 2]
- [Finding 3]

### Recommendations
1. [Action 1]
2. [Action 2]
3. [Action 3]

Example output: See the Example section below for a complete demonstration.

Constraints

• Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions
• Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope
• Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete
• Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization
• Present findings with appropriate confidence levels
• Recognize the limits of the methodology

Example

Input:

Team: Two founders
- CEO: Former product manager at Stripe, left to start company, 3 years at current startup
- CTO: Self-taught engineer, previously built and sold a small SaaS for $500K

Context: Evaluating for Series A investment

Output:

Team Quality Assessment: Founders Duo

Missionaries vs Mercenaries

Classification: Strong Missionaries

Evidence:

Learning Orientation

Score: High

Evidence:

• CEO has product background (customer-focused by training)
• CTO is self-taught (demonstrates learning capability)
• Previous exit shows ability to learn and adapt

Execution Capability

Score: High

Evidence:

• Track record: CEO shipped at Stripe; CTO built and exited a company
• Urgency: 3 years of consistent building demonstrates persistence
• Accountability: Previous exit shows ability to deliver

The Trust Question

"Do I want to get in trouble with this founder?"

Yes. The CEO left a prestigious role at Stripe (not chasing easy money) and has stayed 3 years building (not a quitter). The CTO has actually built and sold something (proven execution). These are people who finish what they start.

Summary

Overall Assessment: Strong Team

Key Strengths:

1. Clear missionary orientation - building from genuine problem experience
2. Proven execution - both have shipped real things
3. Complementary skills - product + technical founder combo

Key Concerns:

1. First time working together (team chemistry unknown)
2. CTO's previous exit was small ($500K) - unknown how they scale

Recommendation: Proceed with investment. This is a strong founding team with missionary orientation and demonstrated execution. Recommend diligence on team chemistry and CTO's ability to build larger engineering organization.

Integration

This skill integrates with the john-doerr expert persona. Apply Doerr's lens: missionaries over mercenaries, always ask the trust question, back teams that seem formidable.

Error Handling