Working with cross-functional teams
Product managers hear this a lot:
As a product manager, you are the CEO of your product.
It is easy for product managers reading this to think they have the authority to make decisions and build whatever they want to build. In reality, product managers don’t have any authority and will have to work with several cross-functional teams to build and support products.
Brian de Haff, Aha! Founder and the author of the book Lovability explain that your product is actually the complete experience and relationship you and your customers share. To build a product that provides a complete product experience, a product manager must successfully work with several cross-functional teams in the company.
Engineering teams build products.
Sales teams drive revenues.
Marketing teams represent the business.
Support teams bring joy to the customers.
And Product Managers with the product strategy and vision rally the team in the right direction to turn that vision into a reality.
It is easier said than done. However, when Product Managers follow the following key principles to drive conversations, whether talking to an engineer or a salesperson drives consensus between individuals and teams.
Cross-functional teams also include other product teams that a feature or product depends on. This is common in medium to large companies where the product is spread across multiple teams.
While empathy is essential, the following can help Product Managers stay in course and get things done with cross-functional teams.
Understand their domain
It is important Product Managers do their homework when approaching folks from other teams for help. Understanding why teams exist, what they do, and their value will help Product Managers break the ice and start the conversation on good terms.
It is always good to schedule a 1:1 or grab a cup of coffee and spend some time to get to know each other on the status, work, and most pressing challenges for the business.
It is also useful if Product Managers can speak the other teams’ language and vocabulary. For example, if it is the sales team, speaking the common words that the sales team is familiar with will yield better conversations than trying to explain technical jargon to the sales team.
Be outcome driven
We all do this - jump right in asking what we want. Instead, take a pause, think about what both parties gain by this request, and turn the conversation into outcomes-driven.
Every team is motivated to work for and measured against their KPIs, OKRs, etc., and usually, it maps to certain outcomes. For example:
The sales team’s goal could be that they want to drive up the revenue by x%
The engineering team’s goal could be to move quicker with release to production cycles every sprint.
If you are going in with a request, it helps to map to those goals and outcomes. Initially, it may look like they are not related. However, if you follow the first principle and understand their domain, it is possible to find common ground. Once you switch to discussing outcomes, then the interest peeks with both the parties, and you will see that you can drive consensus a lot faster.
Build relationships
When you are working with cross-functional teams, you build relationships along with building the product. Your work is going to help other product managers in your team to get things done. So, it is important to continue building the relationship.
Set up a monthly or quarterly 1:1 to share the latest updates and see if there is anything that your team can help with.
Building relationships ultimately will help to:
Be aligned on common goals
Build and grow trust between both parties
Be committed to on-going and future work
With these simple three principles, Product Managers can work effectively with cross-functional teams to get work done. At first, this may seem hard. But as you put these principles into practice, you will notice significant improvements in the partnership.