Product / Design / Engineering Partnerships

I once had a CEO ask me “So once you’ve developed a product idea and rounded it out with the design team, how do you go about presenting it…

I once had a CEO ask me “So once you’ve developed a product idea and rounded it out with the design team, how do you go about presenting it to the engineering manager?”

Of course that’s not how it works. The product, design and engineering leaders are equal partners on the leadership team. They all need to be engaged from the beginning to get the best results.

I think that question asked most frequently in Product Manager interviews might be “How do you partner with Engineering?” So a good way to answer might be with “when” rather than “how.”

Pulling your engineering leader into your earliest conversations is important for so many reasons. But the most important reason is that it fosters a sense of partnership that’s going to improve your relationship and your results.

My sense of our Agile product culture is that we have improved how we engage engineering leaders early in the process, compared to the waterfall days.

I’m not sure if that’s true about Design, though. I make a point to always talk about committing to the design leader as an equal partner in the product leadership team whenever I talk about how I engage with engineering.

A strong Design partner is a force multiplier for the product/engineering partnership, because design artifacts are an essential element of the language used to effectively communicate requirements.

Design dramatically increases the relevance and precision of early product conversations, and it is your best tool for reducing the margin of error in the estimation process.

So another great answer to the question “How does a Product Manager partner with Engineering” is to say “By working with a great Design leader.”

Design partnerships enable great product collaborations. Make yours work for you.