How to Help Your Team Take More Ownership

In one of my recent sessions with H., the VP of Product at a fast-growing scale-up, we found ourselves discussing a challenge nearly every product leader faces: getting their team to truly take ownership. I’ve been working with H. for over a year now, helping the company move from a founder-led product to establishing a great product culture. I have been helping her reshape how product management is perceived in the company by building a solid product strategy, team structure, roadmap, processes, and more. Now it was time to talk about the team and how to get them to lead with full ownership.

The company desperately wants the product team to take more responsibility and ownership, but the team doesn’t seem to succeed. When we got down to the very details of specific examples that H. shared with me, we realized that even she didn’t know exactly what advice to give her people. She saw the gap, but translating it into actionable advice is not trivial.

At this point, I told H. that she couldn’t lead a change by simply telling people what to do. You’re not always there and can’t control every little detail. Instead, we must change the team’s mindset. Once they get into the new mindset, there are things that we can do to help them succeed, but without it, any change is nearly impossible and wouldn’t last long.

Once we change how the team thinks, their actions will naturally follow.

But here is the tricky part: how do you change people’s mindset?

Since H. is a physicist, I thought she would relate to the following analogy: people adhere to Newton’s first law of motion. It says that an object in motion will continue moving at a constant speed and direction unless an external force acts upon it.

With people, it means that they will keep doing what they are used to doing unless we deliberately help them change it. Applying force in this context doesn’t mean being forceful or coercive, but it does mean that you, as a product leader, must do something?—?take deliberate action?—?in order to help them change.

It’s on you to cause that, or things will simply remain as they are.

Now that this is established, you probably ask yourself what actions one needs to take in order to help their team take more ownership. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you in the dark. Here are four simple ones that you can start using today.

Set the Right Expectations

If you want your team to change their behavior, you need to align with them on what you expect.

When it comes to ownership, though, it’s easier said than done.

Product managers usually already see themselves as owners. It’s not a job that one does just to check boxes. They bring their heart and soul into it, and they truly and deeply care.

The problem is that they do so within very limited boundaries, and that’s not what you need from them.

The boundaries are defined by authority, whereas you need them to act as owners outside their official authority.

That’s a tricky concept to even explain. How can they own it if they don’t have the authority to tell people what to do? It’s very natural for people to act only within what they feel is within their control and avoid the things that aren’t.

Since formal authority is a well-known issue for product managers, and they often feel they struggle even with their most basic responsibility of guiding the engineering teams, that’s where most of their energy would naturally go. And when you tell them you want them to take more ownership, they will most likely try to do that within that specific domain.

To fight Newton’s first law of motion, you must be explicit about what you expect. You must tell them that you are talking about taking ownership outside of engineering guidance. If they complain or hesitate, you know you are on the right track. If it’s not at least somewhat challenging for them, most likely, they think they understood what you meant but didn’t really.

To help them, take specific examples of events that occurred where you wanted them to demonstrate their ownership.

It could be the difference between answering customer success’s questions about a newly released feature whenever they ask them and approaching them periodically to ask how the feature is being adopted and whether they need help.

It could be about challenging you?—?their manager?—?when you give guidance in a specific direction.

It could mean being involved and contributing to product marketing discussions even if you are not called upon.

Perhaps in your case, there are other such incidents, and that’s, of course, perfectly fine. The important thing is that you don’t assume they understand the concept just because you explained it in theory. Make it as concrete as possible, using as many recent examples as you can so they can relate.

Own Your Expectations Consistently

If you want your team to hold to your expectations, you must first do so yourself. It’s not as easy as it sounds since, honestly, it’s much easier to do the work for them than to hold them accountable and teach them how to do it themselves.

Remember Newton’s first law of motion? It applies to you as well.

You will have to force yourself not to revert to your old management style. If you want them to own outcomes, for example, you must talk to them about outcomes. If you want them to solve problems on their own, you can’t solve them for them.

The parents among you might relate to the following example: let’s say that you want your child to only have one candy per day. You set the expectation properly; depending on their age, you might have talked to them about how things will change from now on and why it’s good for their health. The next day, when they ask for the first candy, you give it to them. And in the afternoon, they ask for a second one. All of their friends are getting one, and they are frustrated and say it’s unfair. If they are like mine, they would ask for a one-time exception (every day). What do you do? If you want the one-candy-per-day rule to hold, you must enforce it time and again. You will do so with empathy for how challenging it is for them, but it would be challenging for you as well. Nobody likes to see their child frustrated. And still, you must do it if you are truly committed to this rule.

When it comes to your management style, you must consistently and constantly remind them that they are the owners. But talking isn’t enough. When they ask you questions, give them guidance on how to find the answer rather than giving them the answer. When they raise issues, don’t make them your issues. Instead, ask them how they are going to solve them and what they need from you. They will try to pass the ball to your hands, but you must not agree to take it. Remind them that they are the owners and you are here to help (more on that later).

This change would be as tricky to you as it is to them, but it is in your hands to make it happen.

Let Them Defend Their Success?Metrics

One of the ways to make sure you are talking about impact and outcomes rather than best efforts is to define?—?together?—?what success means. I am not talking about success in the mindset change but rather in the things they actually own.

Success wouldn’t be a feature release but rather feature adoption or, even better, its contribution to revenue (although that’s trickier to measure).

Talking about how you will measure success is a good way to better define the expectations in specific cases. But ownership doesn’t stop there.

To hold them truly accountable, set periodic (monthly at least) readouts of those success metrics. These are sessions that they should lead and include the metrics themselves (what you have achieved in reality) as well as their interpretation of what we see and recommendations as to what to do next. It’s important to encourage them to address the latter because that’s what establishes real ownership.

Initially, they might need help understanding what the session should look like and how to prepare for it. By all means, help them do it well, even if initially it would be you holding their hand behind the slides. We want them to succeed; we are not here to test them.

Bring Them to Your Open?Door

This brings me to the last tool, which is your always-open door.

If you haven’t already, please tell them that you are here to help them make the change and will support them with whatever they need. Remember that it’s not an easy change to make, and they will need your help.

But telling them that they are welcome to use you isn’t enough. If you truly own the change process, you will sometimes need to force them to use your help.

Constantly ask them how they are doing. If you don’t like what you hear, don’t let them continue as is. Even if you like what you hear but you feel they are struggling, offer your help. Like them, don’t wait to be called upon to engage in this conversation.

You will need to proactively ask them what they are struggling with and what challenges they face. Be willing to discuss even small ones because improvement often happens in baby steps.

This change is hard enough as is. Make sure you make it as easy for them as possible. That’s the only way it will stick for the long term. If it would be too hard for them day in and day out, it wouldn’t last. They will either revert to their old ways (and probably so would you), or they will leave.

It’s on them to succeed, but it’s on you to make it happen. It’s all about ownership, right?

Our free e-book “ Speed-Up the Journey to Product-Market Fit”?—?an executive’s guide to strategic product management is waiting for you at www.infinify.com/ebook

Originally published at https://infinify.com on March 21, 2024.