EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 67Product Team Objectives

What follows below is the result of the negotiation between the product leaders and the product teams, and also the negotiation between the teams themselves when one identified a dependency on another.

In some cases, the objectives that were initially suggested by the team worked out fine, but in other cases there was substantial back and forth so as to maximize the likelihood that as much of the company's annual objectives as possible could be achieved.¹ Much of this was reflected in the discussion on the desired level of ambition for each objective.

Please keep in mind that the team objectives are not meant to cover everything a product team works on—they all have other work, especially “keep‐the‐lights‐on” work and other issues that will inevitably arise. The team objectives are intended to cover the critical work in support of the company objectives.

Remember that these objectives are problems to solve—they are not solutions. The teams are expected to try out potential solutions in discovery and pursue solutions where they have evidence they will work. This is what is meant by an empowered team.

You'll also note that several of the teams have been assigned the same problem to solve. In most cases, these were common objectives because these were the most important problems that needed to be solved, and so multiple teams were asked to tackle ...