Team Objectives – Collaboration

Marty Cagan argues that product organizations focused on team autonomy still need deliberate forms of collaboration around objectives. He describes two patterns: shared objectives, where several teams co-own a goal such as a platform team supporting an experience team, sometimes through temporary swarms; and common objectives, where teams attack the same problem from different angles. Common objectives are largely a risk-management tactic, since hard problems rarely yield to a single approach. Attributing results across parallel teams is handled with A/B tests. His core point is that avoiding shared or common objectives in the name of autonomy limits an organization's ability to solve its toughest problems.

01Key takeaways

• Give the same important objective to multiple teams when a problem is too large for one team.
• Use shared objectives with a simple API contract when platform and experience teams must coordinate.
• Assign parallel teams the same hard problem from different angles to hedge against failure.
• Use A/B tests to attribute impact fairly when several teams ship changes simultaneously.
• Do not sacrifice collaboration on key objectives in the name of team autonomy.

02Key sections

Shared Objectives

Multiple teams can own the same objective, typically for large company initiatives. Platform and experience teams often agree on an API contract, and teams may temporarily combine forces in co-located swarms.

Common Objectives

Several teams pursue the same problem in different ways to manage risk, since it is hard to know which approach will work. Each team's angle usually produces independent, cumulative changes.

Product Attribution

When many teams change things in parallel, credit for results is hard to assign. A/B testing is the standard way to isolate each team's contribution, including harmful or neutral effects.

Avoiding Collaboration Limits

Shared and common objectives are normal and often wise. Organizations that avoid them for autonomy or communication reasons restrict their capacity to solve the most important problems.

03From the post

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04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.