EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 53Empowerment

Now that we know what actions we need each product team to pursue, we need to discuss how we assign this work in such a way as to empower the team.

The essential point of team objectives is to empower a team by: (a) giving them a problem to solve rather than a feature to build, and (b) ensuring they have the necessary strategic context to understand the why and make good decisions.

The most important point to understand about team objectives is that, first and foremost, they are intended to give the product team the space to come up with solutions to hard and important problems.

This is in stark contrast to a typical product roadmap, which provides the team with a prioritized list of features and projects to build. If those features or projects do not solve the underlying problems, then we fail, even though we may have delivered what we were asked to build.

Assigning Problems to Solve, Rather Than Features to Build

Some people believe that the difference is not such a big deal. If you think you need your team to build an app, then just tell them to build the app rather than providing them the business and strategic context and letting them figure out we need to build an app.

But one of the major lessons our industry has learned is this: How work is assigned matters.

There are many reasons why this is preferred, but the most important are:

• The best people to determine the most appropriate solution are those closest to the problem, with the necessary ...