Over the years, as a product manager, having worked with various engineering leaders and teams, one important and consistent learning for me has been that "success of a product depends on the team of product and engineering - not one or the other".
All the engineers I interacted with have taught me so much and helped me become a better product manager - both in terms of Dos and Don'ts.
In my experience, here is a what I would define as important factors for a successful product team:
1. Trust - Trust each other. Product owner must trust that the engineering team is building the solution the right way and at the same time, engineering needs to trust the Product owner in the requirements given to them. The trust builds over time and gets stronger only when everyone involved is passionate in doing the right thing.
2. Communication - Communication must be two way and transparent. As much as the product owner is responsible for sharing the roadmap and get the team's buy in what should be the path forward, engineering must share their progress path periodically vs keeping the product owner in the dark until the last day. A product manager can help reduce the impact of not being able to meet the plan sooner than later. At the same time, buy in from engineering on the roadmap helps build the passion and energy in the team.
3. Consistent messaging - If there is a plan on what is being built, this should be owned by product and engineering. Plan together and communicate the same message to everyone outside the team. Conflicting messages from different fronts does no good to the stakeholders and the team themselves.
4. Roles and responsibilities - Have well defined ownership and process. If product needs to define the "what" and "why" of the plan, then engineering owns the "how" and "by when". Work as team to get the details in place but the assigned owner is responsible for taking it to the finish line.
5. Collaborate - Everyone might have an assigned role but that doesn't mean , don't share your thoughts. An engineer might have great product sense as well as product owner might have strong technical background to provide feedback. Be open to suggestions and keep that channel open and friendly.
7. Lead by example - Every member of the team must lead by example. For example, if the product owner expects engineering to document and update work status periodically on the project board, product owner must do the same with timely delivery of required updates from product side. This makes the team flat instead of hierarchical.
Above all of these, both product and engineering need to look at each other as "one team" and that both are in it to build the stellar product they set out to build.
I have had the fortune of working with some wonderful engineers over years who have taught me immensely. Here is to many more such successful teams!!!!
