How do you drive alignment across all parts of the organization?
GitLab Director of Product Management • July 27
Oftentimes as a Product leader, I am tasked with cross-functional work across Go-to-market, R&D, and finance. One of the most critical aspects of cross-functional is to drive clarity. This can be done by following three practices:
- Have a published single-source-of-truth charter where current status and archived information live. This repository can be a word document, google sheet, or even a static website. You will want to add "pins" to any relevant documents or links at the top for easy access.
- Determine a regular cadence for team syncs
- Provide continual async updates and link back to the SSOT (number 1) so people who are unable to attend syncs can reference the materials later
- Overcommunicate and overshare the goals and results of the cross-functional work
Point 4 is one to belabor. This overcommunication creates a sense of focus, collaboration, and clarity on purpose and intent. By using consistent communication, people feel like they understand how they can contribute and where they can support.
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Amplitude Vice President, Product Management • July 8
There are obviously a bunch of goal setting / tracking frameworks that are designed to do this (for example OKRs) but I tend to start with where and why any misalignment exists - usually there are 4 levers, and they all come back to strategy:
- is the strategy clearly written?
- is the strategy broadcast regularly?
- is the strategy planned logically?
- is the strategy executed effortlessly?
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