What non-product teams can learn from product teams

Processes and ceremonies that can multiple the effectiveness of Marketing, Ops and Finance teams

I might be biased but I truly believe every single team (Ops, Marketing, Support, Finance, etc) within a product company could multiple their impact if they adopted a few product practices 👇

1. Have a north start and 1-3 KPIs. Independently of your area, everyone should chase a key metric and know how to measure success and progress.

2. Know who your users/customers are. Every team is serving someone with a problem. Support = clients with issues. Marketing = future clients with needs. Operations = processes with inefficiencies. Etc. Everyone has a customer. Know them, so you can hear them.

3. Map your users’/customers’ problems and derive opportunities. The best way to prioritise over a sea of possibilities is by accurately mapping what are the main problems, and which opportunities get you closer to your North Star. Don’t just do “what’s normal in my area”. I see this way too often.

4. Build and communicate a roadmap. Roadmapping is about mapping what you’ll be improving, adding and building to scale your effectiveness. Then let everyone know, every quarter. Make it public and be accountable.

5. Design a vision for the area. Every leader’s responsibility is to tell the story of their future. Your vision makes this transparent across the company, and gets your team excited to come to work every day.

I also recommend these teams to run a few ceremonies that help us be more productive:

- Running research with your “users/customers”. Creating a listening process gets you to prioritise correctly.

- Have releases as you launch or add new things to your processes. Everyone loves the dopamine kick, and this visibility will benefit your team.

- Run retrospectives. Reflecting on what went well (so you can double down) and what didn’t (so you can course correct) can get your execution to the next level

- Have weekly stakeholder meetings with those impacted by your operation OR those requiring things for your roadmap

These 👆are just some of the weapons in the product process. There is no reason everyone can’t use them. In the end of the day, we’re all building the product together.