The risk of misalignment between Product and Engineering. What can Delivery Managers do to help?

In today's fast-paced and highly competitive market, achieving success can be an arduous task. However, from a purely engineering perspective, we know that Product and Engineering alignment is one of the most important aspects to building great products, which combined with a smart delivery strategy, is the way to creating happy customers, and achieving business success. Unfortunately, achieving this alignment can often be a challenging and complex endeavor.

Although Product and Engineering teams have different goals, different ways of working, and different priorities and constraints, when managed successfully they can perform and thrive as one high performing team. However, when they're not aligned, it can spell disaster for a project, team, or even the failure of the entire company.

Misalignment between Product and Engineering can lead to wasted time, wasted resources, missed opportunities, and the resulting product may not meet customer needs or market demand, which means: unhappy customers. It can also result in delays, frustrations, and burnout for both Product and Engineering teams. Product Managers may feel like Engineers aren't prioritizing the right features or delivering on time, while Engineers may feel like they're being micromanaged, overloaded or not given enough autonomy to do their best work.

Product Teams tend to focus on customer needs, market trends, business outcomes, speed and innovation, while Engineering Teams prioritise building the best possible product, technical feasibility, stability, maintainability and scalability. This can create tension and conflict between the two groups, and result in a suboptimal product outcome.

One of the biggest challenges to Product and Engineering alignment is the tension between shipping fast and shipping well. Product teams want to move quickly and experiment with new ideas, while engineering teams want to build high-quality, scalable solutions that are reliable and maintainable over time. This fundamental difference in perspective can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings.

Misalignment can occur when there is a lack of clear communication, shared goals, or a mutual understanding of priorities and constraints.

To overcome this tension and achieve alignment, Product and Engineering teams need to work together to define a shared vision, establish shared goals, priorities, and metrics that balance speed and quality. They need to prioritise collaboration, feedback, and continuous learning, and be willing to adapt and iterate based on data and customer feedback.

Product and Engineering teams need to work together closely, communicate openly, effectively, and frequently, and share a common goal in order to build great products that meet customer needs and drive business results.

What can Delivery Managers do to help?

Effective Delivery Management is crucial in the tech industry and can often be the deciding factor between success and failure. This responsibility typically falls on the shoulders of the Delivery Team, and the success or failure of the Delivery Managers is largely determined by the organisation's ability to embrace and support their leadership in achieving alignment throughout the company. The more permeable the organisation is to the Delivery Manager's guidance, the greater the chances of successfully achieving alignment and ultimately meeting the goals and objectives of the teams and the company as a whole.

The role of the Delivery Manager is often misunderstood and undervalued, but it is critical to the success of any organisation. Delivery Managers must be able and allowed to work across departments to ensure that all teams are aligned and working towards a common goal. This requires Delivery Managers being effective coordinators and communicators. This implies being able to manage interdependencies across departments to ensure that everyone is aligned with the overall strategy and working towards a common goal.

To be able to play this crucial role in helping both Product and Engineering teams align better and achieve their goals, Delivery Managers' focus needs to remain on the following areas:

• Communication: Delivery Managers can act as a bridge between Product and Engineering teams, ensuring that both parties are informed about the progress, challenges, and priorities of the project. They can facilitate regular meetings, status updates, and feedback sessions to keep everyone on the same page.
• Prioritisation: Delivery Managers can help Product teams prioritise features and requirements based on technical feasibility, resource availability, and other constraints. They can work closely with Engineering teams to estimate the effort and impact of each feature, and help Product teams make informed decisions about what to build and when.
• Planning: Delivery Managers can collaborate with both Product and Engineering teams to create a realistic and achievable project plan that aligns with business objectives and customer needs. They can break down work into manageable chunks, set clear milestones and deadlines, and adjust the plan as needed based on feedback and data.
• Risk management: Delivery Managers can anticipate and mitigate risks that may affect project delivery, such as technical debt, scope creep, or dependencies on external systems. They can work with both Product and Engineering teams to identify potential risks, develop contingency plans, and communicate any changes or delays to stakeholders.
• Continuous improvement: Delivery Managers can foster a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging both Product and Engineering teams to learn from each other and adopt best practices. They can facilitate retrospectives, knowledge sharing sessions, and other activities that promote collaboration and innovation.

By focusing on these areas, Delivery Managers can help both Product and Engineering teams align better and deliver faster and better products. They can also act as advocates for a more integrated approach, where Product and Engineering are seen as two sides of the same coin and work together seamlessly to achieve common goals.

The foundation for successful Delivery Management needs to be a smart Delivery Strategy, that brings together all the company strategies, which should be guidelined by a customer-centric approach and effective communication and collaboration across departments in order to deliver high value to the customer. This requires a deep understanding of the product, engineering, marketing, and sales strategies, and the ability to align them to create a seamless customer experience.

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Reference articles:

"Product vs Engineering: The Risks of Misalignment" by Laura Slingo on Built In

"The Risks of Misaligned Product and Engineering Teams" by Melissa Perri on the Product Institute

"The Role of a Delivery Manager in Aligning Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales" by Sachin Duggal

"Why Delivery Management is Key to Business Growth" by Gareth Goh