Scaling with Product Teams

Scaling product teams involves the process of structuring and managing the number and structure of Product Teams as the product grows in size and complexity. This often requires splitting large product teams into more manageable sub-teams, each focused on specific aspects of the product.

Purpose

The primary purpose of scaling product teams is to maintain efficiency and effectiveness in product development as products grow. It ensures that teams remain agile, manageable, and can continue to deliver high-quality products rapidly and consistently.

• Improved focus and specialisation: Smaller, focused teams can concentrate on specific areas of the product.
• Increased agility: More manageable team sizes allow for quicker decision-making and adaptability.
• Enhanced collaboration: Reduces the complexity of communication, making it easier for team members to collaborate effectively.

Context

Industry Context

When you reach product market fit, people describe the shift from pushing product features to them being pulled by the market. To capitalise on the opportunity that you have, before other competitors enter the market space you often need to grow the number of people working on the product to meet the growing demands of the market. However, growing the team too quickly can lead to inefficiencies and communication challenges.

ZeroBlockers Context

In ZeroBlockers, Stream Teams are the ones who build the product. Given that we have identified separate bounded value streams we can grow the number of Stream Teams and assign them separate value streams to work on. If necessary, we can identify boundaries within large, and high priority value streams. This keeps the teams small and focused on specific areas of the product.

However, there is a limit to the number of Stream Teams that a Product Team can effectively manage. We also need a way to split Product Teams when the number of Stream Teams grows.

Methods

Anti-patterns

• Overly Large Teams: Teams that are too large can lead to communication challenges, inefficiencies, and reduced productivity.
• Overlapping Areas of Responsibility: Lack of clear boundaries between teams can result in duplicated efforts, conflicts, and dependencies between teams.