Product Is A Team Sport

Product is not singles tennis. Product is not golf. Product is a team sport.

On a basketball team, the point guard and the center have different roles, but they work together as part of the entire team on the court.

On a soccer team, the center back and the forward also have different roles, but they work together as part of the entire team on the pitch.

No team can win games and championships when it's just a collection of talented individual contributors. Being a great player is not enough to create a great team.

Everyone on the team needs to understand their role and how they come together to play offense, defense, and win as a team. The team also needs to learn to adjust to different situations, injuries, or competitive environments.

On a product team, the Product Manager and the Lead Engineer have different roles, but they work together as part of the entire team on the product.

No product team can be successful when it's just a collection of talented individual contributors. Being an amazing developer, designer, architect, or product manager is not enough to create a great product team.

Everyone on the product team needs to understand their role and how they come together to create value for customers in a way that works for the business. The team also needs to learn to adjust to constraints, changing priorities, competition, pivots, and fluid environments.

Sports teams have players and coaches. Sports teams also need a support staff that might include trainers, nutritionists, psychologists, and equipment managers.

Product teams have triads, managers, and leaders. Product teams also partner with an extended team of product marketers, customer success managers, customer support specialists, consultants, and other resources across the company.

As a product leader, I have made it a priority to both coach team members and create an environment for teams to be successful. This has meant using a lot of frameworks in my product leadership playbook over the years. Two of the most important coaching tools have been situational leadership and building team trust.

The situational leadership model is something that I was introduced to by Kevin Gregoire many years ago and it has been a part of my playbook ever since. The trust pyramid is based on Patrick Lencioni 's book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team and was one of many gems that Monica Mutter, M.Ed. shared with me.

Situational leadership is very helpful in meeting people where they are today and helping them in the moment. Some team members need more direction than others. More experienced teams will need more support and delegation than direction. Situational leadership gives you the ability to adjust with team members as the organization scales.

Trust — there is no path to sustainable success without it. Period. A team without trust will produce outputs, but they will never be a high performing group that creates outcomes. A team built on trust can have healthy conflict and that enables them to commit to decisions. That commitment enables team members to hold each other accountable. And accountability enables the team to achieve collective results.

These are just two of many frameworks in my product leadership playbook. But this is almost always where I start. Connecting with team members and understanding what type of leadership they need today and tomorrow too. And at the same time building a foundation of trust with the team to achieve results together.

Product is a team sport. As product leaders we must create the right environment and provide a support system for teams to be successful. Customers and the business always benefit from high performing product teams.