Handling Hypergrowth as a Product Team: How to Make Sure Your Product Team Can Scale Without Breaking

“Growing pains.”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

What do all of these seemingly throwaway sayings have to do with product management, you ask?

If your team has ever experienced the ‘hypergrowth’ phenomenon, you already know.

At the earliest stages of life, businesses change and grow faster than at any other point — especially in the realm of digital products like SaaS.

The tactics and team structures that work well now might not be so effective in six months, and it’s up to your business to adapt.

This is the central challenge hypergrowth presents, and while it’s a great thing for your business — and your product — it can be tough on product teams.

With that in mind, let’s explore some essential tactics and strategies you can employ today to prevent your team from burning out (or breaking down) when experiencing hypergrowth.

First things first: What is hypergrowth, exactly?

Hypergrowth

While it may sound like a term from a sci-fi movie, hypergrowth is a very real phenomenon. It can happen at any stage of a company’s existence, but it’s most common during the startup phase and is typically the first real ramp-up in business growth.

Essentially, a company experiencing hypergrowth is growing at a rapid rate for specific key metrics — most commonly sales or revenue.

But hypergrowth isn’t a nebulous term; it’s actually a measurable, definable metric.  

According to the World Economic Forum, a company experiencing hypergrowth has a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 40%.

The precise definition of CAGR can differ from business to business, but broadly speaking it’s a solid measure of growth — provided the same metrics are used for comparison.

CAGR

CAGR may be defined by revenue, total sales, registered users, units delivered, and so on. The important part is that this metric represents real-world growth and can be tracked and compared directly over time.

For reference, most companies experiencing ‘normal’ growth will see a CAGR of 20% or less over a year. At more than 40%, it’s clear why the term ‘hyper’ very much applies to companies growing at this rate.

So how do you handle this breakneck pace of development? And how do you scale gracefully while maintaining happy customers and happy employees?

Let’s find out.

Why team structure matters most during hypergrowth

It’s somewhat ironic that rapid growth — a goal for many businesses — can also create significant risk.

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

That’s one way to approach the problem, but is artificially limiting the potential of your business ever a smart idea? 

No. No, it’s not.

Rather, part of the solution to hypergrowth growing pains is to analyze your current team structure and ensure that it’s optimized for where you are today.

We’ll talk about how this structure might change as you scale later. But, for now, it’s about living in the moment and managing your active team structure, one day at a time.

Aligning your stakeholders for clear, concise, communication

No matter how well a team works together, some level of tension is inevitable.

When it comes to a team of product managers working with a team of product engineers, the risk of tension is amplified — especially when people are quite new. And in a startup, everyone is quite new.

So, what do you do when tensions escalate and you reach a log jam?

Who will be the person to make the final decision when two teams can’t agree?

How will you reconcile teams who simply can’t seem to get along and ensure they’re still pulling in the right direction?

Addressing questions like these before they arise is a great way to prepare for hypergrowth, because the risk of such issues derailing your strategy is lowered significantly.

It’s here that communication plays a vital role — and it’s where tools like prioritization roadmaps can come in very handy.

Having tools like this are a great way to remove ambiguity from the conversation. When you have an objective measure, like a prioritization framework, telling you where to focus your attention, it can be tough to argue against that.

The end result? A defusal of tension and a clear route forward.

Whether you’re a product owner or a product manager, relying on a shared roadmap to which you've all agreed is the best way to ensure all stakeholders are aligned. (Need a pointer? Try the Product Roadmap Template from airfocus).

Establishing a reliable methodology for group decision-making

Once you’ve got your team structure in place, it’s time to think about decision-making.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for any team is getting total, 100% agreement on decisions from everyone involved. Sadly, this idea is something of a unicorn. So, when unanimous decisions simply aren’t possible all the time, what’s the alternative?

Well, with the right decision-making methodology, your team can reliably make the best call for the business — while still allowing everyone to feel heard and valued.

If the concept is new to you, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of our favorite group decision-making tools:

• The RAPID model works by assigning everyone in a group a particular role. This reduces friction by making everyone feel like their opinion matters — no matter the outcome. It’s an initialism, with each letter standing for a different role in the decision-making process: Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide.
• Priority Poker. At airfocus, we know exactly how tough it can be for large groups to come to a consensus. We know the issue so well, in fact, that we built a tool to resolve it. The Priority Poker tool in the airfocus platform allows a team to anonymously vote on particular tasks or issues. When all the votes are in, you’ll see how people really feel.

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• The RICE Framework. Here’s a methodology that’s very specific to the world of digital products. If you’re a product owner or manager, you’re probably already au-fait with the RICE framework, but if not, it’s a prioritization tool that breaks tasks down into four categories: Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. If you’re having trouble making decisions as a team, applying the RICE model can help you see the wood for the trees, so to speak.

Watch our latest video on the RICE framework here.

And here’s the real secret: each of these decision-making models should work just as well whether you’re 5, 15 or 50 people. Because, who knows, in hypergrowth your team could double or triple in months.

If you establish methodologies and frameworks with scalability in mind today, then you’ll be setting the scene for effective, collaborative teamwork well into the future.

Introducing flexibility into your role structure

If you’ve ever worked in a large organization, you’ll know that folks can get pretty territorial about their specific roles — especially at the executive level.

Whether that’s self-preservation at play, or something else, the reality is that ‘stepping on toes’ can happen once an organization hits critical mass.

But in the early days?

You should actively aim not to be precious about who’s doing what. Nurturing the ‘we’re all in this together’ spirit is an essential factor when it comes to pushing on through hypergrowth and becoming a stable, profitable company on the other side.

As you analyze your current team structure, consider introducing some flexibility to the roles your executive team is serving — especially if bandwidth allows.

For example, your Vice President of Engineering might be able to spend some time managing the Product team if the demands of the business call for it.

Take some time to talk to your key teams — including leadership — and ask them to be honest about where they’re spending their time. If you have anyone at the executive level with a lot of time on their hands, consider shifting them elsewhere — even to teams they may have little experience with.

The result will be twofold: the business gets a productivity boost by filling that otherwise wasted time, and you’ll be upskilling your employees.

When it comes to managing a cross-disciplinary team through hypergrowth, it’s really all about being flexible and agile.

(And, no, that won’t be the last time you’ll hear that magic word).

Learn more about How to handle employee turnover within your hygergrowing product team, Reorganizing your company structure, and more in our blog article.

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