Why is it that the engineering teams and commerce so difficult to synchronize?
One might think that in the same company, everyone is always aligned on the same goals. The reality, however, is that teams spend too much time fighting among themselves for the budget, resources and leadership opportunities.
The history of the construction of a new product is often a tale of two brains - business and engineering. These two groups are often in conflict rather than collaborating because they operate on different wavelengths.
Although engineering recognizes that successful products are iteration, rotate, moving fast, and not fast, sales teams are focused on planning, predictability and management risks - they want detailed roadmaps products with months, even years, of delay.
The result? Trade and engineering brains struggle to maintain the link between what is built and what needs to be built.
It is easy to say that teams should "just spend more time" to talk to each other or "just having more meetings." The reality, however, is that the cross-functional teams to large organizations need more pep talks and other meetings. teams need targeted workflow and clearly defined to link the process with results.
Here are three tips to guide you.
1. Create a problem that both sides can jointly address
as the national practice leader for the firm Coalfire cyber security, Carlos Pelaez is often found at the intersection of business and technical teams to conduct risk audits. This process, however, forced him to focus on more than security.
"I look at the life cycle of development and the way the company interacts with it," said Pelaez. "If it is not done well, the risk of the solution developed poorly could mean that other companies that depend on the solution will be left with poorly constructed software."
In the role of the auditor, Pelaez is often perceived as an enemy - someone who alone can stop or to create obstacles for a project. He found, however, that his presence will often cause engineering and development teams to rally together.
"Audits create opportunities for developers and sales teams to get behind a single cause, which is to pass the audit," said Pelaez. "During the audit, we have conversations around risk, which also helps each side understand the biggest reason behind why they do what they do. "
face a unique challenge, business and technical teams have no choice but to unite and support each other -. to participate in all stages of the audit process
"Focus strengths more interaction and communication on both sides," said Pelaez.
2. Eliminate unnecessary re-work
and business development teams are often speaking different languages. Engineering teams are likely to address the challenges from a technical point of view, while the sales teams looking to achieve very specific growth targets.
When two teams approach the same challenge from different perspectives, there is necessarily a bad communication - opening doors to wasted effort and endless recovery :. A perpetual state of rework, rework, rework
Let's say, for example, that your organization is building a solution to meet a specific business objective. Your engineering teams receive a set of specifications for development. Through a series of emails, however, crucial information was never communicated through the sales network engineers.
There is a problem that organizations face several times, resulting in a costly and frustrating waste of time.
A first key step to resolving these challenges is to ensure that engineers and sales teams together are involved in the stages of planning.
"There are two main measures we take to ensure our development and business teams are in phase with each other," says Chad Halvorson, CEO and founder of app programming employee when I work.
"on one hand, we make an effort to hire tech and business people focused on the data. on the other hand, we try to hire engineers who are able to think of the bigger picture of what they are being built and how it affects the growth of the company. "
enterprise collaboration software can help keep the teams on same page throughout the development cycle of the product. The secret is a secret at all - these tools create job positions and make it easier for teams to share comments with each step. The end result is a product that exceed performance for its intended use case.
3. Unite around specific objectives - not a desire for "change"
as a product marketer Koombea for application development agency, Kate Swanberg often look for ways to keep development teams and business around the same page.
"Engineers are focusing on construction," she said. "As a product marketer, I'm focused on the acquisition of users, while keeping users updated pricing models, and building a business to support the costs that go into building our product. "
As Swanberg underlines the task of keeping the two sides lined up can be extremely difficult. The Koombea team hosts many meetings and has developed a variety of software, including group chat.
"The main thing is for the business development team and share comments about numbers," Swanberg said. "As a buyer, I let our engineers know where the numbers are low and where they are high. "
Swanberg encourages teams to be highly concentrated in the positioning of their numbers around a business case or story.
" for example, if you are struggling users gain maybe you need to update your integration process, "said Swanberg.". Let the team know that it is a high priority to get people using your product to work on development of additional features that can actually complicate the product "
final Thoughts
Collaboration should not be difficult - but it is. Even more difficult is the fact that there are a number of SaaS tools that promise to streamline workflow and keep teams aligned.
Before the implementation of these tactics, organizations need a thorough understanding of their most pressing needs and pain points. The tools can help, but will be most successful after teams have gone through the process of identifying and laser focusing on the challenges that the bog.
The simplicity will be your best asset.
The best way to begin this process is an open and honest conversation in which team members can talk openly and honestly. Identify a set of challenges, and select tools that solve.
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