What is an empowered product team?
What is an Empowered Product Team?
Definition and Comparison to Feature Teams
- An empowered product team is distinct from feature teams, despite their outward similarities. Both consist of a product manager, designer, and engineers but differ fundamentally in purpose and accountability.
- Feature teams are assigned specific features or projects to build based on pre-defined solutions without understanding the underlying problems they address.
- The role of feature teams focuses on output; they execute tasks like design, backlog management, sprint planning, QA testing, and deployment without being accountable for the results.
- Typically, only 20% to 30% of features built by feature teams succeed due to this lack of problem-solving focus.
Characteristics of Empowered Product Teams
- In contrast, empowered product teams are given problems to solve—these can be customer or business-related—and have the autonomy to determine the best solutions.
- Their accountability extends beyond just shipping features; they explore various approaches if initial solutions fail. This fosters a culture of experimentation and learning.
- The broader responsibilities include not only coding but also engaging in discovery processes that ensure solutions are valuable, usable, feasible, and viable.
Role Dynamics within Teams
- The role of the product manager shifts significantly; instead of merely managing projects as in feature teams, they now focus on ensuring that products are both valuable and viable.