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5 Methods for Organizing Your Product Team to Maximize ... - Infinify
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Independence score: medium to high (will be higher if R&D works in a cross-functional structure like squads or multi-functional teams, and if the needs of each persona are served through primarily separate and distinct areas in the product). “Best suitable for: products with multiple personas, where the needs of the various personas are independent and don’t conflict with each other.” 4. Customer Journey Phases
Note: having clear responsibilities doesn’t mean that you lose the flexibility to add or change them. Ad-hoc projects which don’t necessarily belong in specific domains will still be handed over to team members based on the specific needs and availability of each, and in times of load product managers can help each other and take ownership of specific parts which would naturally fall in another person’s domain. “Still, having clear boundaries is an important starting point to know which boundaries you feel more comfortable bending, and when and why to do so. And most of the time the boundaries will hold.” Of course, like anything else in an agile world, the boundaries need to be rethought of every now and then — when it stops working for you, when you go through major changes or when new responsibilities are added to your team.
With teams that really worked well together, I asked them to come up with a proposal on how to split their responsibilities. It typically led to good results with a split that everyone (including me) was happy with. “Note: having clear responsibilities doesn’t mean that you lose the flexibility to add or change them. Ad-hoc projects which don’t necessarily belong in specific domains will still be handed over to team members based on the specific needs and availability of each, and in times of load product managers can help each other and take ownership of specific parts which would naturally fall in another person’s domain.” Still, having clear boundaries is an important starting point to know which boundaries you feel more comfortable bending, and when and why to do so. And most of the time the boundaries will hold.
Well, little did I know. “My team raised a red flag and asked for clearer boundaries. They were tired of stepping on each other’s toes all the time, or just discussing who owns what on a regular basis. They wanted clear ownership and the ability to run their own domain freely.” I learned that even if not everyone likes the split responsibilities at first, it is still better than not having them at all.
The split should be balanced throughout the product team — according to the desire, load, and capabilities of each team member. “Note that balance doesn’t necessarily mean equal load, capacity or responsibility. It means that each team member owns something they can succeed in, in a way which contributes best to the overall team goals.” Since balance is very specific to each team and the people in it, I will only rank the following methods according to completeness and independence.