How should we structure our product team
Dedicated, co-located, cross-functional. Most organizations get two out of three. This is for deciding which one you give up on purpose.
Planning, cadence, and visibility all matter very little if the team is not organized to use them. Three properties do most of the work. A dedicated team has one goal and every member assigned fully to it. A co-located team shares physical space, which is where the impromptu whiteboard trip and the idea over lunch come from. A cross-functional team has every function it needs on the team, which is what removes handoffs.
Almost nobody gets all three. The failure is not missing one, it is missing one by accident and then wondering why the other practices are not landing. A half-time designer means you do not have a dedicated team by definition, and no amount of process fixes that.
Score honestly, name the one you are giving up, then fund the thing that compensates for it.
What you get
- A 1 to 5 scale for each of the three properties, with what each actually means
- The two-out-of-three rule and how to apply it
- A table of what each missing property costs you and what to fund instead
- A note on the most common misreading of dual track
Where should we send it?
One email with the worksheet. You can unsubscribe from anything else in one click.
On its way
Check your inbox. If it has not landed in a minute or two, look in promotions or spam, and add sam@startuppatterns.com to your contacts so the rest arrive.
Adapted from the Delivery chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.