How to build a Product Team to drive outcomes and product success

Key points:

• Make sure your team knows where you are leading them
• People need to know how what they do relates to the big picture
• Have clear role descriptions and expectations
• Know about your people and their potential
• Setup a structure for success

Making organisational change is hard. A company’s culture is a complex thing, informed by words as well as actions. I’ve heard it described in a nice, succinct manner as “the way we do things around here”. When you are trying to effect change, whether it is in how you work or the way you work, the people in your team are always at the centre.

Good leaders learn fast that they set the tone for a company’s culture. They know that what they say as well as how they say it matters. Clarity in direction and expectations is always front of mind. They realise that their words must be reinforced by their actions.

This article touches on the subject of effecting organisational change. It is by no means a deep dive but will provide you with some tips for navigating this in your workplace.

Let people move towards common goals with a clear strategy

I know I have spoken about the importance of strategic clarity before. It is at the heart of what we do. People should know exactly how what they do each day relates to the strategy. If they know then they are far better equipped to make good decisions and take good actions.

Having a good and clear way of disseminating your strategy can be a challenge.

Remember to adapt your story to better suit the audience. Whilst the core messages of your strategy should be the same for all, the form can change for your audience. You need not have one “deck” that you use for the boardroom as well as for your “town hall” style meetings.

Remember too that different people absorb information better via different methods. Make the content appealing and entertaining. Use numbers to reinforce your plan. If you can, make it interactive when presenting.

You can also use established tools to both develop and communicate your strategy. I’ve spoken about the Business Model Canvas in the past and there are many other great tools that can help.

Drive motivation and results through clarity of role

People can perform better when expectations are clear. They need to know what their job entails and the various duties they need to perform. This clarity is a real motivator for some people as well.

Documenting a role is a must. Make it crystal clear so that it provides a guide for the person performing the role. This helps manage expectations and helps to make sure people feel they are in the right job too. Include the skills required or expected as this will help identify the best person for the job.

Having a regular method for providing feedback to your team is also important. Formality is great for the annual conversation, but informal sessions are a must. Have different ways to check in on your team that works best for you and your team. If someone isn’t performing it shouldn’t be a shock when it comes to formal review time.

Do everyone a favour and don’t avoid the tough conversations. You may have a pleasant surprise when people respond well to constructive feedback. They will also have a better grasp on expectations.

The truth is that the longer you leave things that don’t work without addressing them, the more risk you have. This is both with regards to a lack of productivity and ability to reset with your employee.

Know your team, their skills and their potential

When you have clear roles, you will also know what the requisite skills are for that role. In this way you can review your current team against their roles and identify skill gaps.

Training can help you to close your skill gaps, but it is not a panacea. Ongoing training can make your team more effective and is a powerful retention tool.

Other times you may identify skills in your employee that better suit another role in your team. This can unlock an opportunity to both improve performance and satisfaction.

It is common to find that you need to seek missing skills outside your organisation. It is also common that you may identify people in roles that do not have many of the required skills. Under these circumstances, corrective action should be taken.

Review processes tend to concentrate on performance, but a team member’s potential should also be considered. You should therefore have a talent process. This rates a team member based more on their demonstrated potential rather than performance. This is where you will identify your future leaders and innovators. Once you know where your talent lies, you can better nurture it.

It is challenging to make changes in your team, but without the right people in the right jobs you will not succeed.

Enable your team to be successful with the right structure

To be successful, particularly in digital, you need to have a structure that works for you. There are many ways to structure your team and many of them will work well for you. Others could cause an imbalance in resources or friction in your processes.

The right structure for your team must flow on from strategy. What you need to achieve will influence your structure needs. Your processes and policies will also have an impact here.

Your process design will also inform your structure. Setting up for Agile development will have different needs to that of traditional project delivery. Implementing techniques like Growth Hacking will also have an impact on your structure.

Having the right structure in place will let teams work in an autonomous fashion. This way work will happen without constant oversight (aka the dreaded micro-management). This makes teams happier and more productive. A true win-win scenario.

Remember your role in all this

You are there to lead, so do so. Engage with your people. Learn about them. Care about them. Work to make sure their path is clear.

Don’t shy away from the challenging decisions. Embrace them. Knowledge is your friend, so do the hard work and base your tough decisions on proof.

Set your team up for success and success will follow.

Are you looking to make changes in your organisation or are you in the middle of change already? We can help, contact us today.

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