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Have Special Teams & Product Teams. Special Teams don't get ownership of anything, can't veto anything. They're there to answer any and all questions from the

Have Special Teams & Product Teams. Special Teams don't get ownership of anything, can't veto anything. They're there to answer any and all questions from the product team and to set the stage for how the product team may solve a challenge (i.e. present a menu of relevant approaches with expert commentary on the applicability to the problem, but implementation is the product team's job). This limbo position helps tamp down on the prestige of a Special Team relative to Product while still attempting to harness expert value.

gedy 5y ago
Issue with this approach at some companies though is when Special X Team is measured by the quality of X, but has little authority over Product teams, who have no incentive to do X well.
- musingsole 5y ago
  > Special X Team is measured by the quality of X So don't measure the special X team by the quality of X, but the quality of service they provide to the product team in pursuit of X.
  - gedy 5y ago
    Agreed that would be nice, but you'd be surprised at some companies thinking..
marcinzm 5y ago
So how do you measure the value and contribution of the product and special teams including compared to each other. Somehow promotions, head count, budget and so on needs to allocated. Without ownership or the ability to veto it's not fair to measure the Special Teams on any product related metrics. But if you can't measure them on product related metrics then what do you measure them on? Feedback by other teams which will result in endless games of politics?
- musingsole 5y ago
  The existential political threat has to be reined in as the check on the Special Team. No one wants to be under Damocles' sword, but if you want power, it's the way it has to be. Give them a veto if you want, but it paints a target on their back. No veto and only able to use soft influence is probably a mercy to the position.

gedy 5y ago

Issue with this approach at some companies though is when Special X Team is measured by the quality of X, but has little authority over Product teams, who have no incentive to do X well.

musingsole 5y ago
> Special X Team is measured by the quality of X So don't measure the special X team by the quality of X, but the quality of service they provide to the product team in pursuit of X.
- gedy 5y ago
  Agreed that would be nice, but you'd be surprised at some companies thinking..

marcinzm 5y ago

So how do you measure the value and contribution of the product and special teams including compared to each other. Somehow promotions, head count, budget and so on needs to allocated. Without ownership or the ability to veto it's not fair to measure the Special Teams on any product related metrics. But if you can't measure them on product related metrics then what do you measure them on? Feedback by other teams which will result in endless games of politics?

musingsole 5y ago
The existential political threat has to be reined in as the check on the Special Team. No one wants to be under Damocles' sword, but if you want power, it's the way it has to be. Give them a veto if you want, but it paints a target on their back. No veto and only able to use soft influence is probably a mercy to the position.