What Makes a Great Product Org? A Sense of Ownership

I recently sat down with Dan Roth, Executive Editor at LinkedIn to talk about leadership, company culture, the real estate industry and a few other topics I feel passionate about. One of the things that came up was Zillow Group’s commitment to maintaining a startup culture as we grow. The heart of this effort lies in our product org – the program managers, product marketers, software engineers, designers and businesspeople who help create our websites and mobile apps – so I try to keep a close eye on it by regularly attending product reviews, design reviews and other product ideation sessions. I also try to meet with employees– specifically, new employees – whenever possible to learn where we can double down on the things they like and adapt in areas where we need to improve.

My most recent coffee chat was with a group manager who joined us about six months ago from a very large tech company based in Seattle. He shared a few defining traits that appeal to him about our product culture, so naturally I want to share them with you.

The first big difference this group manager noticed was collaboration within teams. At large, traditionally structured companies, disagreements on product direction are often solved by escalating up the management chain – often to the point where the decision-maker is out of touch with the challenge in question and the developers involved. At Zillow Group, our teams are small and, for the most part, make decisions together based on quarterly direction from senior management. At our shop, product teams work together to figure it out among themselves rather than rely on escalations to break ties.

Second, this employee reveled in his autonomy to make decisions as the group manager. The fact that his team controls their product backlog made him almost giddy because it enables them to move faster. He’s not micromanaged; rather, he is responsible for mapping to the quarterly strategic objectives set by senior management. “If we make a mistake, we learn from it,” he told me. “But we’re accountable for it. Autonomy also gives our team opportunity for greatness when we own our work.”

The third piece of feedback the group manager shared with me was the appeal of having a visible impact on the business. By virtue of team size, autonomy and ability to ship code quickly, product teams can track their impact to revenue and to customers. I think this is the biggest appeal to working at a startup: seeing your work come to life and feeling like you’ve done something that really matters to the business. Zillow Group is now a large company, but we work very hard to not act like one. The beauty of the decentralized team model is it empowers individuals to have a greater impact. 

I know we’re not perfect. Like any company with a startup culture, we still have our moments where we get too excited, run a bit too fast and lose a bit of grace in the process – kind of like a puppy trying to round a corner at full sprint on a wood floor. But I think our commitment to maintaining that speed and energy as we mature is what will keep our products innovative and workforce full of talented individuals – those looking for ownership, like this group manager.  

And that’s why one of our company’s core values is #OwnIt.