How can you keep cross-functional teams engaged throughout the product lifecycle?

Product demos, roadmaps, newsletters is great from a stakeholder perspective. But if you’re using them to bring along your cross-functional then you’re failing. Great Product Managers embrace the value of their collective and involve their core cross-functional, as soon as discovery starts. You can easily do this by holding a formal kick-off meeting to provide the vision and business case, and set roles and responsibilities. Then set up open communication channels and pull-ups with your core team. This will develop significantly better products because you have empowered everyone to have a vested interest in the outcome.

The way I go about is involve all partner teams during the first kick off when the idea is being built - provide everyone the perspective of the why it’s being built and what it entails and how it helps the org. This way everyone gets an option to understand the rationale and ask questions, if any. Once this is done and agreement is built, it’s far easier to get tactical agreements done even if teams are stretched and have problems in execution alignment later in the journey.

In my experience, working with B2B IT vendor clients, it's proven to be very difficult to get product marketing teams to acknowledge the benefits of gaining insight from different customer stakeholders. For example, it's assumed that the IT champion is aware of the line of business leader and their end-user needs. It's often an unfounded assumption. Moreover, senior decision-maker's expectations for desired business outcomes are not captured during the discovery process. Therefore, I will insist that diverse stakeholders are identified and engaged in order to ensure that a view of the 'customer' is not limited to low-level individuals in the IT organization. Cross-functional team engagement is required to gain a holistic view of the market.

One thing I have found very helpful is when you get at least one representative from cross functional teams involved during the problem definition and discovery process. It is very crucial and beneficial for all parties to not skip this step. Apart from "involving" them, you are telling them you value their input and nudging them to have skin in the game.

If you want people to be engaged cross-functionally, you need to include them in the project as a whole, not just elements which fit within their area of responsibility and expertise. Give the cross-functional core team members a voice in all critical decisions, from the start of the project to the end of the project. They will be engaged if they feel they are part of a select team of people who can shape and influence the project overall. Allow them to brainstorm, share ideas, raise concerns, and influence decisions. Encourage them to ask questions and engage in discussions outside their areas of expertise. Make it clear that they are equal owners of project successes and failures.

I follow the concept of cross-functional working group to ensure we can leverage the diverse perspectives. It is a great practice to establish a cadence of weekly or bi-weekly meetups of the cross-functional working group to keep them abreast of the progress throughout all the product planning & development phases as well as solicit feedback and perspectives. Doing retrospection at the end of each cycle is a valuable practice to celebrate positives and learn from what did not go very well, imbibing the spirit of continuous improvement.

How I've put this into practice is to have a centralized document outlining project goals, deliverables, and deadlines as well as a regular communication channel. I've found weekly updates leading up to a launch, and bi-weekly updates post-launch are good timeframes. I include an update on what has been accomplished since the last update, what is currently in progress, and any blockers or issues I am working through. Post-launch, I include key metrics and identify any spikes or unexplained large changes in the data. As product marketers, we often hand off our projects to other teams once we know a launch is on track, outline the handoff details as well to keep stakeholders informed.

Pick a tool (slack/ teams/ other) make sure all artifacts and communications are there. Open communication is key. Inspite of best efforts, there will be drama. Set the right expectations with fellow leaders on their responsibilities.

Implement systems where feedback is gathered continuously and analyzed by AI to identify trends and areas for improvement quickly. Managers can also try gamified feedback mechanisms, turning feedback and adaptation into a game, where teams earn points for quickly implementing changes or creatively solving problems.

I believe the first engagement is the most important and for best impact should be done individually in advance and then as a group. When the team meet with a common understanding. of the why and have given an initial input, it is easier to shape the agenda for the group kick off. In the kick meeting review the first plan and refine and baseline. Importantly then agree the 'drum beat' and form of communication. I would suggest a fixed meeting and time that can flex as per the need. Communication as and when needed is encouraged + if there is a crisis call a specific meeting outside of the drum beat. Commentate with bulletin updates outside of the meetings, for all functions to all functions to create a sense of togetherness.

Recognize the importance of mental health in productivity. Incorporate wellness programs, mindfulness sessions, and stress management workshops to keep the team mentally and emotionally engaged. Occasionally take your team to visit companies in entirely different industries. This can spark new ideas and ways of thinking about problems and solutions. Set up a space or a time where team members can work on pet projects or explore new technologies. This not only fosters innovation but also keeps the team engaged and excited about the work they're doing.