People & Product

By Adam Wintle

⚡️ Adam's Product Management Newsletter - Issue #3 - High-Performing Product Teams

#3・ Apr 29, 2019

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Adam Wintle

@adamwintle

Hi there!

I find analysing what makes a team a high-performing team an interesting topic to think about. Finding a good team synergy doesn’t just magically happen, building a fully autonomous and self-managing team can be very hard work. But when it happens the team can achieve great things.

I’m still discovering the best approach for forming a high-performing team, and I think there’s probably not a single best way to achieve a high-performing and fully self-managing team.

Is in today’s newsletter I wanted to recommend five articles I’ve found insightful when building and forming self-managing teams.

Are you struggling with product team management or something similar? Drop me a quick email and I’ll see what I can do to help!

Thanks,

Adam

What Are Self-Managed Teams?

In this blog post Andreea Visanoiu explores one of the more standard definitions of what is a self-managed or self-organised team. She also covers an interesting Authority Matrix model which clearly outlines four levels of team autonomy within an organisation.

allagile.wordpress.com

Five ingredients for happy, motivated and successful teams

Lillian Ayla Ersoy does a good job here of breaking down what makes a team successful. The key takeaway for me is about the size of an effective product team. Lillian mentions 8 people as the rule of thumb for an effective team. I’ve personally found 6 to 7 is about the right size for a cross-functional team, and then if it becomes larger, such as 9 or 10, then it gets broken down into two smaller teams, each with their own dedicated roadmap and objectives.

uxdesign.cc

Autonomy Is the Best Way to Reward Your Team

In this post Gustavo Razzetti clearly outlines the definition of what autonomous teams really means, and what it doesn’t mean. For me the key takeaway is the differences between autonomy and independence. Team members aren’t independent of one another, everyone is actually interdependent. The team are still required to work together as a single unit, but each person is autonomous and accountable for the work they contribute.

medium.com

Empowered Product Teams

This is the longest article I’m sharing this week, but its worth the read if you’re interested in the topic. In the article Marty Cagan analysis how to inspire and empower product teams. For me the key insight is around the common misconception that self-managing and autonomous teams don’t require a “manager” at all. Of course management and leadership is still needed, it’s the the depth of their experience which adds the most value to the team.

svpg.com

On Creating Effective Teams by Susan A. Wheelan

This final link is actually review of a book called On Creating Effective Team by Susan Wheelan. The book was originally published in 1999, but everything is still completely relevant today. It also shows that team dynamics and the problems which arise within teams hasn’t changed over the past 20 years.

medium.com

Thank You

I hope these articles and my observations were useful. Thanks again for signing up sticking with me through to my third issue. If you have suggestions for topics you’d like me to cover just reply to this email and let me know.

Also, if you know anyone that might enjoy my newsletter, please share this issue with your friends and colleagues.

Have a great week ahead,

Thanks!

Adam Wintle

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Adam Wintle @adamwintle

Focusing on People and Product: the intersection of psychology and product management.

After working in product for over a decade and speaking to many other product mangers (as well as UXers, growth people, marketers and techies) the number one struggle I heard again and again is that people are at the root of the majority of the problems.

Once you have mastered the basics of product management. Once you have read all the books. After you’ve been to all the conferences. You’ve seen all the YouTube videos; you’re a member of all the Slack communities. Then you are only left with learning how to lead, work with and manage other people, to get them all aligned and pointing in the same direction, so you can build your product vision and ultimately build a successful product.

This art of People & Product can take decades to master. I’m certainly not a master of this yet, but I thought you might enjoy following along on my journey. Want in?

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