Leading Side-by-Side
Self-organizing product initiatives
What do you do when your success on a key product initiative depends on other product managers?
Here are a few choices:
Not you: You focus on your area - management can coordinate among product managers
Project Manager: You project manage the team to deliver on time
Save the Day: You prepare for a diving catch because the team isn’t ready for this initiative
Learn More: You study the technology and wait for someone to ask for your help
Be the Boss: You tell each team member what to do every day
Lone Wolf: You take care of the initiative alone
Please don't pick any of these choices! Even if you are new to a team of advanced leaders, these are very bad choices for you and your product.
If these choices are bad, then what are you supposed to do?
Why are Product Managers Thrust into Organizing Product Initiatives?
This scenario is coming up more and more for the following reasons:
Remote Work Successes: more collaboration
Flattening organizations: less layers of management means more grass-roots initiatives
Complex product environments: no single person knows the whole picture
Outcome focus: shared goals lead to customer satisfaction and meeting business goals
Being able to self-organize with your peers is a model you will see often!
However, stepping up and asserting yourself with strong-minded leaders can be challenging. Don’t lull yourself into thinking you have little to offer and stay on the sidelines of joint work.
You can take a leadership role with your peers without overstepping boundaries.
Align on Shared Goals for Independent Work
Shared goals are great for working together. But how do you achieve them? Who drafts the shared goals first?
It begins with you asking questions. Good questions relate to:
Timing of your work with others
Dependencies on each other
Who has a relationship with a stakeholder
What worked last time
Whether you get a response to your questions - or not - writing your point of view on the answers is a valuable step.
Asking and answering questions builds consensus on shared goals.
Clarify Roles and Expectations
Listen carefully to understand each team member’s strengths and priorities when working toward shared goals. This helps define clear roles, ensuring everyone knows how to contribute. By actively listening and asking questions, you can identify each person’s unique skills and what they bring to the table.
Documenting the roles and responsibilities related to each goal can help gather feedback and build consensus. This written outline reduces overlap and reveals any gaps that need filling to meet the shared goals effectively.
Key skills often needed in a product initiative include:
Technical expertise in specific areas
Functional business knowledge relevant to the initiative
Relationships with external stakeholders or other teams
Experience from similar past initiatives
Leadership in documentation, ensuring clear and organized information sharing
Combining these skills provides a foundation for role definitions and alignment of responsibilities.
Keep communication open as you explore different ways to achieve shared goals and make adjustments as needed.
Make Communications Easy
Open, streamlined communication is important when working with peers across different teams on a shared initiative. Since most of your team members likely have other responsibilities, it’s crucial to keep communication focused and effortless.
To simplify, organize communication into two main categories:
Group Discussions: Regular updates, progress sharing, and collaborative problem-solving.
Strategic Discussions with Stakeholders: High-level planning and decisions involving key external or internal stakeholders.
With limited availability for live meetings, prioritize asynchronous communication whenever possible. Use chat channels to queue up topics and agree on priorities for each meeting in advance. This allows everyone to stay in sync without needing constant real-time coordination.
Set up a shared space where all team members can access relevant documents, working materials, and discussion threads. Encourage team members to work transparently in these shared documents by adding early mock-ups, workflows, and forecasts.
This open approach keeps everyone informed, supports ongoing collaboration, and enables the team to move forward efficiently outside of meetings.
A virtual team organizer template is on the Resources Page (Paid subscribers only)
Conclusion - Skills for Self-Organization
In cross-functional product initiatives, relying on top-down management or taking full control yourself can create bottlenecks and friction. Instead, today's product managers are increasingly called to self-organize, collaborating with peers to align on shared goals and drive successful outcomes without hierarchical oversight. This shift is driven by the rise of remote work, flat organizational structures, complex product ecosystems, and a focus on customer-centric outcomes.
To effectively self-organize, product managers take these steps:
Align on Shared Goals: Begin by asking questions about timelines, dependencies, stakeholder relationships, and past successes to build a consensus on objectives.
Clarify Roles and Expectations: Identify each team member's expertise and role to prevent overlaps and fill gaps, ensuring that everyone’s contributions align with the initiative’s goals.
Facilitate Open Communication: Use chat channels and shared documents to keep everyone in sync, reducing the need for constant meetings. Encourage transparent documentation of progress, workflows, and mock-ups to allow teamwork to flourish outside of live discussions.
By leading side-by-side, product managers create the momentum and alignment needed to bring initiatives to life.
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