In my decade-long journey in leadership roles within engineering for product development companies, one truth has become abundantly clear — the significance of a reliable Product Partner. The relationship between Product and Engineering is paramount, and from my perspective, it’s the synergy between Product and Tech leaders that truly defines success. It serves as a blueprint for collaborative excellence, demonstrating to teams how seamless collaboration between Engineering and Product can be achieved.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with brilliant product leaders who have not only made my job easier but have also enriched my experience. I wanted to compile the key attributes that have made these individuals effective Product partners and, in turn, enhanced my professional satisfaction.
Understands Engineering aren’t just Executors (but Strategic Partners)
By engaging engineering early, Product gains the advantage of tapping into expertise to assess the feasibility of features, identify technical constraints, and create innovative solutions.
It helps in setting realistic goals and timelines, aligns the product vision with the practicalities of implementation.
Recognising that engineering teams are not mere executors but strategic partners is crucial. Engaging them early taps into their expertise, ensures realistic goals and timelines that align with the product vision.
Explains the ‘Why’ really well
The most effective Product leaders I have worked with are great at setting Context and explaining the ‘Why’ of product decisions. This is crucial to bringing Engineering on the journey to execute the product initiative.
This means that Product has to articulate the following:
- Explaining the Business context in which the Product decision is made
- Explaining the metrics and data that is driving the decision
- Explaining why the Product decision is so important right now
- Explaining the metrics that will change because of the initiative
Explaining the ‘Why’ goes a long way to also illicit the most creative solutions to a problem.
Connects on a regular basis
The most effective Product leaders connect with their Tech counterparts on a regular basis. This ensures that Tech is aware of upcoming initiatives, issues, and blockers. The best Product leaders I have worked with connect with tech counterparts on a daily basis via asynchronous messaging , and meet in-person / virtual once a week.
They always come prepared with ideas, issues or initiatives for open conversation and collaboration.
Trusts their Technology Counterpart
Trust needs to be built but once established Product should empower Engineering to make decision relevant to their domain of expertise. In saying that it is upon Technology to build that trust first.
A Product Manager can trust their Tech partner when :
- Technology partner shows compassion and understanding towards the needs of the Customer and the Business
- Technology shows open and transparent communication with regular feedback loops
- Technology celebrates successes with product together
- Technology collaborates on initiatives
- Technology is encouraging of shared goals and objectives
Once Trust is established it can be very disconcerting from a tech perspective to be :
- Questioned about trivial technical decisions
- Demanded 100% confidence estimations
- Blame their Technology counterpart for issues and incidents but don’t provide the culture and space to invest in tech debt
Trust is so important in the crucial relationship between Product and Tech. I could write a whole blog on establishing trust (and keeping it!). Will definitely do that later.
Understands the importance of building the right thing over speed of delivery
In a world where we value speed we can get caught up in delivering fast over delivering the right thing.
Great Product managers understand that product success isn’t just delivering fast but also building sustainable and maintainable solutions. Products which value Engineering excellence can adapt quickly changing customer demands.
Valuing engineering excellence ensures that every line of code, every component, and every architectural decision is meticulously considered, resulting in a product that not only functions seamlessly but also scales robustly as customer demands change.
Solicits feedback and input into Roadmap
Product’s success is not solely determined by what features make it onto the roadmap but by how well those features can be executed. Great Product leaders understand crucial concept.
Soliciting engineering perspective into the roadmap not only ensures the feasibility of the envisioned features but also lays the groundwork for a more efficient, adaptive, and successful development journey.
It ensures the most effective use of developers, opportunity mitigate technical risks early, strategic alignment between Technology and Product objectives, and finding the most innovative solutions to problems.
Represents Tech if needed
There are times where Engineering cannot be in the room for a discussion. However, good Product partners can represent the concerns for Technology in the meeting. I do not expect them to know the details, but they can funnel the questions that their Engineering counter part might ask. Or they will direct questions to the appropriate Tech representative where required.
Shows care for System Hygiene and Cost of ownership
I do not expect my product partner to know everything about how to run Applications and Services. But the best product partners I’ve had understand that development doesn’t stop at the end of the build phase. There is on-going maintenance and cost of running applications. A pragmatic Product partner ensures there is capacity and time in roadmaps to build AND run services.
Product is open to conversation about tech debt. They listen to engineers who raise concerns about the health of the code base. Ideally Product will be open to conversation and collaboration on how to prioritise tech debt. They can have conversations with Engineering Leaders to make the best decisions on the developer experience.
Passionate about alignment
The best product and engineering functions complement each other. Great product counterparts to ensure that for every Product manager there is a tech lead, For every Engineering Manager there is a Group Product manager and so forth. They value the importance of creating the healthy tension between Product and Technology. And treat Tech as a strategic partner at all levels.
An imbalanced Product and Engineering organisation leads to imbalanced conversations which in turn leads to incomplete products.
Avoid Deadlines
Anyone (whether you’re product or an engineer) who has been in Software for a while know that it’s impossible to create 100% confidence in estimates. Enterprise software is complex, messy, and unpredictable. There are so many moving parts making it cognitively too hard to estimate with upmost most confidence. Seasoned Product leaders understand this and thus avoid deadlines. Rather they focus on milestones and checkpoints. These checkpoints give Product and Engineering an opportunity to check in on progress, collate velocity data, and pivot where required. Awesome product leaders also know how to make hard decisions on scope.
Totally understand there are occasions where a deadline is required. For example Compliance, Regulation, and/or Marketing timelines. However, where possible this should be avoided.
No Surprises!
I hate surprises. And I’m pretty sure that most Tech leaders are the same. I hate being told about changes in roadmap, direction or resources AFTER the decision has been made. It erodes trust from a Engineering perspective and makes strategic Engineering decisions difficult because you don’t know what’s coming down the pipeline.
A good Product counterpart keeps their Technology partner informed of rumblings around the business, change in direction and Stakeholder expectations.
Whilst I understand that there are rare occasions where a product roadmap might change e.g. sudden compliance regulation coming to play, this should be an exception to the rule.
Wrap up
Those are the list of attributes I look for in my product partner. I look for Open communication , Someone who can explain decisions well, Shows care for System health, values Technology input at the table, and finally understands the value of implementing sustainable, reliable and maintainable systems.
The relationship between Technology and Product can make or break the success of a company.
I’m curious to hear what a Product Leader expects from their Technology counterpart.
