Is Team Tactics worth it?

Brandon Gould discovered that Team Tactics could help him build a more cohesive product marketing team. As a product manager leading six professionals with another on the way, he needed reliable tools to align his team around strategy and improve collaboration. The cards became his go-to resource for onboarding new team members and building high-performance cultures.

"If you just make 1% improvement, these things are gonna pay for themselves"

Why Brandon needed better team tools

Brandon Gould manages a team of product marketing professionals at Tektronix and serves as product manager for mainstream platforms. He leads demonstrations of the 5 Series B MSO oscilloscope and works closely with engineering on new product development. In his testimonial he notes purchasing multiple Pip Decks (Team, Storyteller and Workshop Tactics) to onboard new team members and improve collaboration. Visit Tektronix.

"If you just make 1% improvement in whatever you're focusing on and what you're working on, the cost is basically nothing. If you try to look at the cost based on the cost of cards or printing or shipping, you might come to a different calculation. But if you just make a 1% improvement, these things are gonna pay for themselves over and over for your team."

Watch Brandon's testimonial about Team Tactics

Full testimonial transcript

Hey there, my name's Brandon Gould and I work managing a team of six product marketing professionals. And we're about to onboard one more.

I purchased three of the Pip Decks, the Team Tactics, the Storyteller Tactics and Workshop Tactics. And I'm working through right now trying to get my team more cohesively, pull together around what our strategy is and what it is that we are going after as a team.

As I said, we're also going to be onboarding a couple of people in the near future. So I'm using some of these cards, like team strategy. What is it that we're focused on as a team? My user manual as I'm newer to people management, I want to make sure that I can express to others the way that I work and that I can better understand the way that they work.

And then last but not least, is onboarding retros. Onboarding is a really difficult and typically a painful process. And you don't want to continue doing things wrong if you can learn from your first time where you do something wrong, right? So if you have a poor onboarding experience for employee number one, you really got to turn that around for employee number two.

And this card here of the onboarding retros is going to really be helpful for our team.

If someone was considering purchasing some of these, what would I say to help them make that decision? I would say, for the cost, if you just make 1% improvement in whatever you're focusing on and what you're working on, the cost is basically nothing.

If you try to look at the cost based on the cost of cards or printing or shipping, you might come to a different calculation. But if you just make a 1% improvement, these things are going to pay for themselves over and over for your team.

From team challenges to strategic alignment

Brandon purchased three Pip Decks to address specific challenges in his product marketing team. With six professionals and another on the way, he needed tools to build cohesion around strategy and improve the onboarding process for new team members.

He immediately put Team Tactics to work on three key areas. The team strategy card helped him align his team around their shared objectives. The user manual card helped him understand how to work with his team members more effectively as a new people manager.

The onboarding improvement challenge

Onboarding new team members is typically a painful and difficult process. Brandon recognised that if the first onboarding experience was poor, he needed to turn it around for the second employee. The onboarding retros card became his tool for learning from mistakes and improving the process.

This systematic approach to team development helped him build a more cohesive and effective product marketing team. The cards provided the structure he needed to address both immediate challenges and long-term team development.

What made the difference

Brandon's experience shows how Team Tactics solves real problems for managers and team leaders. The cards provide instant access to proven team development techniques, reducing planning time whilst maintaining quality. The onboarding retros concept, in particular, helped him learn from mistakes and improve processes systematically.

How Brandon uses Team Tactics in practice

Brandon runs a lightweight cadence around three cards:

Team strategy to align on one clear objective for the quarter
User manual to surface working preferences as new people join
Onboarding retros after week two and week six to capture frictions early

This rhythm created a repeatable onboarding loop that improves with each hire and keeps the team honest about how work really happens, not how they hope it happens.

Who this helps

Product marketing and platform teams operating with mixed seniority
New managers who need structure without bureaucracy
Leaders scaling fast and looking for simple rituals that compound

Transform your team alignment

If you're tired of struggling with team alignment and onboarding, the Team Tactics Deck might be exactly what you need. You'll join over 200,000 professionals who've found their confidence through these cards.

Brandon's success story represents one example of how Pip Decks' community of over 200,000 professionals across 100+ countries is transforming their work. These are real experiences from trusted experts who've field‑tested these tools in demanding professional environments.

For the complete team development system, consider pairing Team Tactics with Workshop Tactics to create sessions that both align and inspire your team.

Explore more success stories on our Pip Decks Testimonials Hub.

Team Tactics Review by Brandon Gould: A Product Manager's Onboarding Retro System