Important Things to Know as a Leader of a Digital Product Team
As there continues to be discussion about how to implement product development working models, I wanted to share some points that I believe are the most important for a leader or facilitator (Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Project Managers, Tech Leads, etc.) of a digital product team to know.
Over the course of my career I have worked within various forms of SDLC methodologies: Iterative, Scrum, Kanban, “Scrumban”, Waterfall, XP, etc. I have even experimented with Shape Up, and leveraged improvement processes like Lean Six Sigma from within a product strategy.
Any time I start working with a new product development organization, I have found that there are 3 things almost certain to be true…
1️⃣ There is a strong preference on the SDLC/product development working model.
2️⃣ There is a strong preference on how a certain working model is used (e.g., pointing methods, measuring health, estimating, story writing)
3️⃣ There is a strong preference on the tools used (Jira vs. DevOps vs. ClickUp, etc.).
As a leader stepping in to manage a team, those points mentioned are some of the most important things to learn right away.
The next important thing to learn is: why. Why did these beliefs and practices come about? Knowing that will help you better address any changes that might need to be made, as well as determining what should be left alone.
Regardless of what you learn about the team and processes, one change that I encourage everyone to promote is this: Teach your teams that frameworks and methodologies are all tools in your product development tool box, the same as frameworks, IDEs, and design patterns are in software engineering. Encourage a business culture of being open and flexible; focusing on delivering outcomes rather than rigid adherence to existing norms.
That is not to say that staying true to one framework or methodology is wrong. In some cases it may be the best approach and it is usually the best approach for new and inexperienced teams, but for leaders in this space, you need to be able to use discernment and know what tool is best for the current challenge at hand.
I have led product teams that were successful in delivering many digital products, established full agile practices, and provided hundreds of hours coaching and training teams, so I am fairly confident when I say that the following two concepts are probably the most important things to know when leading product teams…
🧠 Having an open mind and being flexible is the absolute best way to uncover and create solutions that deliver value to your customer.
🧠 Being clear, transparent, and consistent in what you do will give you and your team the greatest likelihood of success.
Even if an certain SDLC approach may not be the most ideal, often times staying consistent and sticking with what already is in place is the best way to ensure success because you avoid potential issues due to confusion and over-processing. To determine this however, you need to understand why those legacy decisions were made in the first place. Whatever your decide, be sure that it is well communicated, and documented (because it is going to come up again).
But if you are not convinced, don’t take my word for it, just read 4 core values from a little thing called the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
Something else that I wish that I knew when I was starting out in Product Development (or Project Management) roles, was the impact of building emotional capital.
💙 Emotional Capital (noun): the feelings and beliefs that help an organization’s employees to form successful relationships with each other.
(Cambridge Dictionary)
Everyone wants to make a difference; you ant to win over your boss, your team, and your clients. You often hear that a great way to do this is go for the “quick wins” or “low hanging fruit”, and so naturally you jump in and try to make changes right away that have an immediate impact on things like quality or efficiency; however, sometimes while this is going on another situation is developing within the people you are serving: fear and anxiety, which eventually lead to distrust. If distrust exists, then those quick wins may even turn out to be harmful to you over time.
Sometimes the low hanging fruit is not the tactical thing you are tasked to solve, and sometimes it makes sense to not go after that quick win right away. Most times, it makes sense to establish Emotional Capital among the people you are working with to build a level of trust and understanding of how people think, feel and work.
Take the time to get to know the people you work with; get to know how they think and want to receive information. You have probably heard the phrase “don’t come to me with problems, come to me with solutions”, but not everyone works that way. Some people “hate surprises” and would rather know immediately that a problem is potentially arising than wait for you to try to figure out a possible fix.
Here are 7 questions that I like to ask when being integrated to new teams, with new clients, and other partnerships.
- When and how do you like to receive information: right away with a bit of triage done, or with a well thought out solution.
- Do you typically prefer me to come up with solution or do you want to be a part of the process?
- What topics do you care most about when making decisions (brand visuals, brand persona, cost and expenses, scheduling, features and scope, etc.)
- Do you want a highlight level update and allow you to ask questions, or do you want as much information as possible and let you digest it first?
- When coming to you for a business topic, do you prefer a warm up conversation (assuming it is not an emergency) or should I get right to business?
- How do you typically present information, do you like working with visuals or do you prefer working with text? Alternatively you could ask: If you had to pick one medium to get rid of what would it be (word docs, slide decks, spreadsheets, or diagrams).
- When making decisions, do you find that you typically arc comfortable making decisions on the fly or do you prefer to walk a way for a bit to think about it?
The style and wording may change, but each of those questions helps me build an understanding of who I am serving. This alone does not build Emotional Capital, although the fact that you are asking does set it in motion, but it does give you the insights on how to work and interact with people in this new organization in a way that helps you build EC.
With that information in mind, you will then be able to truly see where the quick wins are and how to achieve them. But I will also highlight one additional requirement: Emotional Intelligence and Situational Awareness. With all of the points mentioned, you also need to be able to read how people are responding and determine if further questioning is going to be successful as well as when it is appropriate, or most effective, to dig into these questions.
While this may seem like a lot to do or consider, it really is not.
We do this every day with our friends and family. We just need to take the time and remember that those that we are working with are people too. We just need to listen and be curios, and understand that they most likely are facing their own challenges in life.
Oh, and by the way, having an open and curious mindset, developing emotional capital, and being flexible is going to become so much more relevant as AI continues to evolve and influence how we as humans work together and do business in the future.
What do you think? Have you experienced something different?
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Thanks for reading!
