You're caught between hardware and software teams with conflicting priorities. How do you find common ground?

Promote open communication, prioritize the customer's needs as paramount. Encourage collaboration among teams to achieve goals effectively and maintain a strong focus on delivering quality results.

Determining what the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is can resolve many issues, including prioritization between software and hardware engineers. Oftentimes, both groups will want to add something more because they think it is cool or want to add it to their resume. This can result in feature bloat, added licensing costs, more complicated maintenance, and of course schedule slippage. Gaining a thorough understanding of the needs of end users is key to determining whether features are vital to the end product or driven by personal motivation.

BE the VOC, life is tough all over for hardware and software teams. The voice of the customer should be the driver, not some tribal interests

Dive into the unique requirements and constraints of both the hardware and software teams. Understanding their needs involves not only recognizing their stated objectives but also delving deeper to comprehend the underlying motivations and challenges they face in achieving their goals.

Foster an atmosphere of transparent and uninhibited communication where individuals from both teams feel comfortable expressing their perspectives. This not only encourages the sharing of contrasting ideas but also enables mutual understanding and respect, essential for harmonizing conflicting priorities.

Open Dialogue is the key aspect of effective team collaboration. Hardware and software teams cannot have different priorities unless they are working indifferent projects altogether. Start from the customer in view and work backwards. Customer wants an application in 6 months, so first the software needs to be finalized and the platform comes second. Platform can be Platform as a Service and continue building and pivot when the hardware team gets ready with the solution. That is one way of handling priorities. Communication and common ground are most important to set priorities.

Facilitate a collaborative process to align the teams' goals and objectives. By finding common ground in their overarching aspirations and objectives, it becomes possible to create a unified vision that serves as the compass for decision-making and resource allocation.

Aligning the various team goals helps find common ground between hardware and software teams with conflicting priorities by focusing on shared objectives. For example, both teams may aim to enhance the end-user experience. By highlighting this common goal, you can facilitate collaboration and compromise. In a previous role, I organized a workshop where hardware and software teams jointly defined project goals, such as improving system performance and reliability. This alignment allowed both teams to understand their interdependencies and prioritize tasks that supported mutual objectives, leading to a more integrated and cooperative approach to project completion.

Encourage a problem-solving approach that embraces flexibility without compromising on quality. Look for solutions that honor the non-negotiables of each team while accommodating the essential aspects of conflicting priorities, fostering a sense of shared progress.

Developing compromise-based solutions helps find common ground between hardware and software teams with conflicting priorities by balancing their needs and achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. For example, if the hardware team requires more time for testing while the software team is eager to deploy new features, a compromise could involve staggered releases. In a past project, I negotiated a phased implementation where critical hardware stability updates were prioritized, followed by incremental software feature rollouts. This approach satisfied both teams, ensured project continuity, and fostered a collaborative environment, demonstrating the value of balanced solutions.

"Teamwork Leads to Success" Both Hardware and Software are important aspects to build a successful product, alone one cannot build a proper product. First of all let's understand why there's conflicts between teams. It's mostly because of the difference in the work load of different systems. Usually to reduce the workload one chooses a system but it doesn't align with the other system ultimately the workload will be transferred to another system. How to resolve this? The Decision of choosing and deciding a system depends on the Team Leader, a good team leader will choose a system which aligns with the product goals. This ensures an trust within the team as there will be very few conflicts.

Co-create through joint prototyping or early-stage collaborative development. By engaging in this process, the teams can actively witness the integration of hardware and software elements, allowing for the identification and resolution of potential conflicts in real time.