What do you do if your application developers and product managers can't see eye to eye?

The objective of a team is usually easily convey and aligned. It either contributes to a better user experience and/or a better business case. Challenge is always on how that is achieved, with the need and contributions from different functional members. Is it deliberate by design, that team members with different KPIs come together; ensuring every aspects is considered and optimized towards the objective. Bridging gaps not only allow every members to understand each others’ constrains/work better, it foster a more collaborative working relationship/dynamics in achieving the goals, which is vital for every high performing teams.

Find a perspective that allows "value for all." Facilitate a complex collaboration exercise, starting with an appreciative view of the future that both can aspire to and bring their assets to bear.

In my experience, we develop value disguised as products or features. The need for brainstorming, scoping, and agreeing on the minimum viable product (MVP) juxtaposed to resource availability and business priorities is where reality is defined. Facilitating this outcome is key.

When ''what you see'' isn't necessarily...''what you gets''...there's a problem! A big one! And it's all about perception and/or understanding. Sometimes, it takes different glasses to see the same thing. Having People, Process and Tools around the single source of thruth can be a great ''three fingers bridge''...but still...if there's not a solid requirements understanding at the inception...the final product will suffer or...it will miss the target.

One thing I found useful is to have clearly defined roles for the entire team. This is a time consuming task that many teams don’t take the time to do but if done correctly beforehand it helps the team for success.

Define Clear Roles and Responsibilities: Sometimes tension arises from overlaps in roles or unclear expectations. Clearly defining what each role is responsible for can reduce friction and ensure both teams understand where their duties lie and where they intersect.

If there is a disagreement between these two roles someone is crossing role boundaries. I’ll be honest in my 40 years of being developer, team lead, product manager, architect, and CTO I’ve never encountered this issue so I’d be interested in how this is manifesting itself. Are the product managers trying to define architecture, or are developers trying to define features or UI design?

Actually this consider the main cause of many kind of confusion accordingly we must clearly define the roles and responsibilities and ensure each team member understand their specific role in the project and how to aligns with objectives.

Differences occurs between team whey they are not tied to a common goal. Hence it is very important to establish a common vision so that every member in the team works towards the same goal. The goal should be simple and yet powerful to tie all the members together. Once the team are focused on a single goal, they would work around the differences to achieve the common goal. It is also important to have a collaborative culture to exchange ideas and work together. If the environment is not conducive for collaboration, individual interests would take precedence and the team would fail to deliver.

Joint Goal Setting: Aligning both teams around common objectives can help focus efforts and reduce conflicts. Ensure that both the developers and product managers agree on the project goals and understand how their contributions fit into the larger picture.

Yes sharing the team to identify the roles and responsibilities together, will help to understand the vision and objectives and ensure the understanding of roles.

Encourage each team to learn about the other's workflows, challenges, and pressures. This can be facilitated through job shadowing, joint workshops, and training sessions. Understanding the complexities of each other’s roles can foster empathy and smoother cooperation.

Totally agree, we are human and we should promoting the empathy with the team and provide the needed training and shield to be convenient.

I've always found silent listening becomes important. Most tension happens during moments of collaboration, be it meetings or virtually on a tool like slack or JIRA. The 1st item is to determine is there a time constraint, if there is get involved and become the data driven TPM and bring in your understanding of architect + timeline constraint. If there is no timeline issue, and its an issue with design vs development timeframe. Ask each person to slow down, and become the mediator by stopping the conflict, then spend the time in 1:1 to hear everyone out and sient listening, and then take a day to think about it yourself. At which point your role as mediator changes to problem-solver, at that point you will bring both team member together.

Foster a culture that welcomes change to encourage flexibility and adaptability. Encourage developers and product managers to adjust plans and embrace new ideas based on feedback, knowledge sharing, etc. This will help them respond quickly to changing circumstances and stay competitive.

Establish and maintain a formal process for addressing conflicts when they arise. This could involve mediation by a neutral third party within the company, such as a project manager or HR representative. Ensuring there's a clear procedure in place can help manage disputes professionally and promptly.

Yes, we must continuously review and adjust the team's processes and workflows to identify the areas for improvement and to avoid any conflict.

This usually happens when there is a notion that conflict (often under the guise of ‘healthy tension’, which makes as much sense as a ‘healthy stroke’) is a key driver of an efficient relationship between the groups. Reject this. The best product comes when there is lockstep, supportive collaboration between product and engineering. Really work to identify opportunities for each team to cover for the other (a tech lead should be able to answer questions of the product lead and vice versa.) Also make sure there is clear accountability for the whole solution across the group, not just concentrated on one side or the other. Product may be more focused on defining the problem and engineering the technical solution, but should deliver as one.