How do you approach building a well rounded product team?
A well-rounded product team requires three main features:
- Diverse composition
- Top talent in the domain
- Rigorous product management processes
Diverse talent can be accomplished by hiring with a specific schedule of product manager you want to hire. This can mean location diversity gender diversity, and racial diversity, but the bottom line is you want to have a population in your team that is representative of your customers. If you don’t have a product team that reflects your customers, you’re likely not going to be building a product that will be used and loved by your end users.
Top talent in the domain is usually accomplished by looking at your competitors looking at your aspiration products and recruiting from those specific companies. It can also mean finding thought leaders in the area people who are producing contact on YouTube for Twitter, and our respected in the domain.
Lastly, the processes. A product team can be completely rock stars when it comes to all of their domain knowledge, their ability to think about problems specifically, but if they don’t have a way to work together, then all of those skills are wasted. An example would be how do you release product? How do you update your customers and how do you think about the market? All of those questions need to have an answer so that your product managers are producing the way it is that you want to deliver product in the same way.
Building a well-rounded product team requires a combination of planning, recruiting, and development. By taking the time to identify the skills and expertise that will be needed, building a team around those needs, and then providing the necessary resources and support, you can build a high-performing team.
Instead of focusing on numbers and putting out a generic product management requisition to kick-start hiring, spend time strategically thinking and planning about the needs and composition of the product team. A good place to start planning is to put down 1,2 and 3-year business goals and objectives. This will help you identify skills needed in the team as well as plan out team growth. For example, if the goal is to introduce a new product line this year with the target persona for developers, you need someone on the team who is technical and ideally had been a developer in their previous life. Similarly in year 2, your goal is to add support for FedRAMP, you will need someone on the team who has experience with FedRAMP. You, however, don't need to hire for this role and skill immediately. You can start hiring for this role in potentially Q3. To summarize, the first and most critical step in building a well-rounded team is to identify how many product managers you need currently, what is the incremental number and what are skill sets needed to achieve the business goals and objectives.
Once you have defined your team's growth plans, make sure you make your recruiting team aware so they can schedule their sourcing plans accordingly. When hiring, it is critical to not only focus on the skills and experience but on their temperament and how they will collaborate and communicate with others on the team as well as cross-functionally. It is important to make sure every hire you make has clearly defined ownership and is given proper onboarding.
After putting the right team is in place, your job is to make sure the team is aligned on the shared goals and vision and feels empowered to make trade-offs and decisions to drive positive outcomes for their areas of focus. In addition, as a leader, you will need to build an inclusive and open culture that fosters collaboration and communication within the team.
When building a well-rounded team, I start by understanding the product vision, product maturity, and organizational culture. This helps me define the ideal team composition and identify the right candidates, whether it's for a first product manager (PM) role or improving an existing medium-large team. If I join an organization with an existing team, I evaluate their skills and experience to see if they are suitable for their roles. I also assess the processes in place and identify areas that need improvement.
Based on my evaluation, I provide learning and growth opportunities for existing team members to bridge any skill gaps, or consider recruiting new team members with the missing skills to complete the team. I also prioritize diversity in the team, seeking individuals from diverse backgrounds and skill sets, as this brings varied perspectives and promotes creativity and innovation. It's important to strike a balance between experienced team members and opportunities for growth, as a team with only highly experienced individuals may lack room for development, resulting in attrition.
Creating a horizon for each team member is crucial, allowing them to set their goals and advance their careers within the team. This can include providing mentorship, coaching, and clear paths for progression. A well-balanced team where individuals can thrive and grow is essential for long-term success.
By considering the product vision, evaluating existing team members, promoting diversity, and providing growth opportunities, I aim to build a well-rounded product team that is capable of achieving product success while nurturing individual talents.
Here is my process to building a well rounded PM team:
Goals: Start with what space/market am I operating in, what product I want to build, what are our weaknesses / Strengths. This allows me to understand if I need a PM that has strong domain expertise or someone with background in psychology.
Hiring / Onboarding: come up with must-have and nice-to-haves for the PM hires and craft out a thoughtful interview process that is based on evaluating core PM skills and personalities.
Feedback loop: There should be a constant feedback loop between PMs and leaders to understand what can be improved in processes and come up with experiments to try and improve those areas.
Measuring not just on what but how: I measure PMs not just on OKRs they achieve and metrics they move but also on how they end up achieving their goals. Best ones create long-term advantage for the organization and company while collaborating across groups/departments.
Define the list of competencies you need (and these may change/grow over time) and then be intentional in hiring PMs that cover your competencies amazingly well.
When you are assessing your PMs during performance/talent discussions make sure these competencies are front and center in assessing the health of the team.
Top Product Management Mentors
