Engineering and Product teams are sometimes known to experience friction between colliding goals: Creating value, and building something reliable. Of course, the two only succeed when married together.
The key to managing that natural tension, and keeping it constructive, is to ensure great communication.
Poor communication can be the root of numerous issues for any team. It causes inefficiency, poorer relations, and lower productivity. These costs time, which costs money, and compromises your business goals.
So, how can you make sure your teams are communicating effectively?
We’ve rounded up five hacks:
1 - Trust.
When two teams or managers differ strongly, it’s usually because both are very confident in their own viewpoints, based on expertise. But how can teams with differing perspectives rub along effectively, and avoid ending up with a toxic culture over time?
The answer is to embrace a healthy challenge culture, and remember to trust in one another's reasoning. In the end, you’re both right.
The value that a Product team aim to create will serve both customers and your company. The methodical approach that an Engineering team will often favour to build reliably, will in turn support those aims.
Respect that each differing priority is valid, and seek to combine them.
2 - Compromise.
When the original idea that was sure to wow customers and stakeholders, conflicts with feasibility… It’s time to find a compromise. Somewhere in the middle, there’s an ideal product that will still impress, will also be reliable, and is realistic and affordable to build.
Have an open discussion with your Engineering team about what they can realistically do, and ensure that your Product team are clear about priorities, non-negotiables and anything that can be sacrificed.
When everyone is motivated and on the same page, you can agree to a time frame and an end result that works for you all.
3 - Focus on the why, as well as the what.
Let's look at that keyword, ‘motivated’.
How do you ensure that everyone keeps their eyes on the prize throughout this process, instead of getting bogged down in disagreements, and truly wants to get to the best possible solution?
According to Product Plan, ‘You want to make sure your team understands why what they’re doing matters.’
Clearly communicating the strategy and vision for your product can help to ensure that teams are all working within a cohesive picture. When everyone has the same goal in mind, compromises become more attractive and conflict is rarer.
4 - Be clear on success criteria.
To use Product Plan’s example, if you tell the whole company “We want to create an intuitive, streamlined experience that solves the XYZ problem for our user persona”, they may all have a different interpretation of what that means.
Moreover, this does not provide clarity on what to prioritise.
If you make your success criteria explicit from day one, each team can start to identify how they will achieve that result. They’ll also have a better idea of what can be changed if necessary, and what can’t.
5 - Always share access to an up-to-date roadmap.
This should act as a point of reference for each team, to answer questions about strategic reasoning and stay aligned on timelines.
Your roadmap should show how each team's timeframe overlaps with others. That way, when something changes, adjustments can be made to avoid major setbacks.
Product Plan and various other tools like Productboard and Craft.io provide an easy way to illustrate this.
A roadmap can also be useful as a communication tool. When things get complicated or you find yourselves going back and forth, you can turn to your roadmap and simply ask ‘how do we move forward in our plan from here?’
Overall, being organised and providing clarity are key ways to ensure great communication between your teams, but both are underpinned by a culture of trust and understanding.
Ensure that you all care about the same goal, and respect each other's objectives and expertise. Then, things should flow smoothly.
