The Teams Canvas model
A team is displayed as a live object system. The central team object holds team-level actions, specialist objects show the people in the composition, and connections expose working or capability relationships.
Pan and zoom change the view without changing the saved team. Dragging an object changes its layout; saving the team stores the composition and object positions.
Use Teams Canvas for a reusable team
Teams Canvas edits a team object that can be saved and reused. It is the right place to assemble people, combine teams, inspect collaboration relationships and define team-level defaults before or between projects.
It is not the same as the active project roster. A project can use only part of a saved team, and Project Architect can connect several teams to one project without forcing you to save them as one permanent combined team.
| Goal | Use |
|---|---|
| Build a reusable internal or external team | Teams Canvas |
| Save a larger team made from several source teams | Teams Canvas |
| Assign several teams only to one project plan | Project Architect |
| Change the confirmed people on an active project | Project team controls in the authorized project flow |
Start from the right source
| Source | Use it when | What opens on the field |
|---|---|---|
| New Team | You are creating a new reusable composition | An empty team object ready for specialists and settings |
| Saved team in Library | The team already exists | Its team object, specialists, relationships and saved layout |
| AI assembly | You know the need but not the exact people | One ranked team option grounded in professional-profile evidence |
| Complete current team with AI | You already have yourself, colleagues or an internal team and need complementary capability | The current people stay locked while ranked single-team variants add only justified missing specialists |
| Another source team | You want a larger reusable team | Drag adds that full source team and its specialists to the current composition |
| Internal specialist search | You want to assemble only from people already available to your organization | Candidates from the authorized internal specialist pool |
Build the composition
- 1Open Library
Choose a saved team, search specialists or start an AI-assisted assembly.
- 2Add an object
Click for a single selection or drag a team card onto the field to combine it with the current composition.
- 3Inspect a specialist
Select a specialist to view fit bars, current availability and contextual recommendations.
- 4Complete a partial team
Keep the people already on the field, open Complete current team with AI, describe the project and compare variants that preserve the internal core.
- 5Review relationships
Select a specialist once to reveal relationship labels. Direct dragging does not enter relationship mode.
- 6Save with a clear name
Combined teams must be saved as a new team so the original team records remain intact.
Build a hybrid team from a real internal core
Hybrid assembly does not search for a second unrelated team. Collty reads the Professional Profiles of the people already on the field, identifies the roles, expertise, industries, languages, availability and delivery evidence they cover, and searches only for material gaps in the project brief.
Every result is one complete standalone team option. Your locked core appears in every option; the options differ only where another qualified specialist can cover a remaining gap in a stronger way. Choosing an option creates an editable hybrid composition without changing the original saved team.
- 1Place the internal core
Add yourself, colleagues or an existing internal team. Every core member must resolve to a real saved Professional Profile.
- 2Describe the project
Add the business outcome, relevant market, constraints and expected deliverables so capability gaps can be evaluated semantically.
- 3Find missing specialists
Collty keeps the core locked, ranks profile-backed candidates for uncovered needs and refuses weak matches rather than filling a role with an unrelated person.
- 4Compare team variants
Review each complete option by fit, evidence, availability and role coverage. Variants are alternatives; they are never appended to one another.
- 5Edit and save
Remove or replace an added specialist, adjust the composition and save it under a distinct team name when it should become reusable.
Click, drag and select have different meanings
| Gesture | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Click a team in Library | Open that team as the current single-team composition |
| Drag a team from Library onto the field | Add it to the current composition without removing it from Library |
| Drag a team or specialist already on the field | Move the object and preserve its current interaction mode |
| Click a specialist | Open contextual specialist information and relationship mode |
| Drag a specialist without clicking first | Move the object without unexpectedly opening relationship mode |
| Click the Library collapse control | Hide the panel; use the matching rail control to open it again |
Use each specialist object as a decision surface
- Open the real Professional Profile to review location, timezone, education, cases and personal expertise.
- Read the RPG-style fit bars as separate dimensions rather than one unexplained score.
- Check availability and capacity before assigning the person to a project.
- Select the object to reveal capability and collaboration relationships with bounded, readable labels.
- Remove a specialist from the current composition without deleting the person's profile or source-team membership.
Keep single-team and multi-team structures understandable
A single team connects its specialists to one central team object. A combined composition gives each source team its own object and connects those teams to a new top-level team object. This keeps source ownership and membership visible instead of flattening every person into an anonymous list.
Detach a source team when it is not needed. The source team remains in Library and its own record is not deleted.
Edit only the settings you own
| Settings | Stored on | Who can edit |
|---|---|---|
| Source-team membership and settings | The source team | Its owner or authorized manager |
| Combined-team settings | The new top-level team | The combined-team owner or manager |
| Project cadence, hours and billing | The project operating model | Authorized project owners through the project flow |
| Specialist Professional Profile | The person's account | That specialist |
| Private collaboration signals | The owner's private collaboration graph | The person who recorded the relationship |
Analyze and refine rather than filling every role
Team Intelligence evaluates the composition itself when no project brief exists. In a project context it can evaluate fit against the project. These are different questions and should not produce the same recommendations.
Replacement Bench does not list the whole database. AI Assembly uses role-specific, evidence-grounded alternatives. Project replacement uses strict semantic retrieval for the exact role and project context; if no reliable replacement exists, Collty shows no candidate instead of filling the list with unrelated profiles.
Distinguish the saved team from an active project roster
| State | Meaning | Can receive project tasks? |
|---|---|---|
| Saved team member | Belongs to the reusable source team | Only after project confirmation |
| Available / inactive | Visible as possible project capacity but not part of active delivery | No |
| Pending | Added to the project but waiting for the correct client, partner or specialist decision | No |
| Confirmed / active | Accepted into the project roster | Yes |
| Removed or replaced | No longer part of active project delivery | No |
Examples
| Need | Recommended action |
|---|---|
| Create a product launch team from people you already know | Start New Team, add authorized internal specialists, analyze the composition and save it |
| Add external research capability to an internal team | Drag the external team from Library onto the current field and save a new combined team |
| Improve an AI recommendation | Open the ranked option, inspect profiles, remove weak fits and use role-specific replacement alternatives |
| Use the same team for a no-billing internal project and an hourly client project | Keep one saved team and configure separate operating models when each project is created |
| Add a new source-team member to an existing project | Keep the person available until the authorized project participation flow confirms them |