👋 Hey! My name is Piotr, and welcome to my newsletter on the building blocks needed for a successful tech product company.

Creating a successful product is like making a good jazz album. You need the right combination of talented people who can play together in harmony despite playing different instruments.

What is Product Trio?

A Product Trio is a product team leadership group—the product manager, product designer, and tech lead. 

They collaborate to build solutions that are:

• valuable to the customer

• easy to use by the customer

• doable with existing technology

• in line with their business

• ethical to do

Product Trio principles

Having those three roles in the team doesn’t guarantee success. There are a few principles to follow if you want to see the impact:

1. United they stand

The whole trio should be treated as a single unit, even though each member brings different skills and perspectives. They all share the same goals and are held accountable for the team's success. They share the wins and share the losses.

2. Collaborate all the way

Everyone in the product trio is involved in one way or another in product discovery and product delivery.

A common anti-pattern I see is a waterfall process with no collaboration between those three roles. Essentially work is being handed over from one role to another:

1. Product Manager writes requirements and hands it to the designer

2. Designer designs the UI and hands it to the engineers

3. Engineers write code based on the UI and release it to the customers

It looks like throwing the brick:

Or like in a factory. A feature factory.

In most cases, this is what happens:

• Engineers are unable to implement a feature as handed over due to some technical restrictions

• Designer lacks critical customer insights

• The final solution not meeting the requirements

• All three roles are frustrated with each other and create memes about how they cooperate

• No one feels responsible for the solution

• There is a lot of finger pointing 

• Projects end up late

• Quality is low

• There is no real impact of the solution

So if there is one thing you should take from this article: Do not allow for work handoffs. Create an environment where people can collaborate.

3. Collaborating in everything

While product trio is all about collaboration, each role has a different perspective and distinct responsibilities. You’ll see more of one role in some activities while less in others.

Examples:

Angle #1: Discovery and Delivery

• During the Discovery phase (interviewing, prototyping, problem definition), you’ll see extensive collaboration between Product Managers and Product Designers, while Tech Lead will most likely be just informed or consulted.

• During the Delivery phase (building and iterating on the solution), however, you’ll see many more discussions between Engineers and Product Designers iterating on building the solution. During that phase, Product Managers are kept in the loop, but their time commitment is lower.

Angle #2: Tackling the Discovery risks

I’ve mentioned earlier that the product trio collaborates to build solutions that are:

• valuable to the customer

• easy to use by the customer

• doable with existing technology

• in line with their business

• ethical to do

I recommend a single role to be driving each:

• valuable to the customer → Product Manager

• easy to use by the customer → Product Designer

• doable with current technology → Tech Lead

• in line with their business → Product Manager

• ethical to do → Product Manager

Drivers collaborate with two other functions, but they have the final saying.

Angle #3: Individual activities

Similarly, some roles are better drivers for specific activities than others.

For example:

• Product Managers and Engineers should be part of the customer interviews, even though Product Designers may be driving it. 

• Product Managers and Product Designers should be testing the final solution, even though Engineers may be driving it.

• Engineers and Product Designers should be part of the discussions when deciding on the product roadmap, even though Product Managers may be driving it.

4. No rockstars

Every role in the product trio is equal - there are three leaders in the team (taking aside who’s reporting to who).

Think of the product trio as a three-legged stool. If you make one leg shorter, it will trip. 

To be clear: I do not advocate seeking consensus in every decision:

• Product Managers or Product Designers shouldn’t decide on the technical architecture. 

• Engineers shouldn’t have a final saying in what problems the team is solving. 

5. Not limited to product teams

Even though I’m focusing on the product teams, the same principles apply all the way up. In most cases, your most senior technology function (Chief Technology Officer / Head of Technology, etc.) and most senior product function (Chief Product Officer / Head of Product) should have the same goals and be very closely collaborating.

10 tips to strengthen Product Trio in your company

1. Make sure your product teams are stable and not temporary (for example, project-based). Product trio is a long-term, relationship-building game.

2. Clarify Product Trio roles and responsibilities, for example, using a role registry.

3. Make sure you have all three roles that fit those responsibilities inside each product team.

4. Make sure everyone in the trio understands their role and two other roles’ responsibilities. 

5. Make sure all three roles understand Product Trio Principles (link them to this post)

6. Set shared goals for Product Trio.

7. Establish a good collaboration platform for the trio - a dedicated meeting and a channel is a good start.

8. Encourage and reward collaboration and teamwork via cultural artifacts like team mission statements or values lists.

9. Celebrate successes and learn from mistakes as a team. Quick way: public appreciation channel

10. Use integration budgets generously to strengthen product trio relations further.

Behind Every Great Product

Marty Cagan once said:

Behind every great product, there is someone working tirelessly—who led the product team to combine technology and design to solve real customer problems in a way that met the needs of the business.

I agree with the general sentiment, but I would state differently:

Behind every great product, there is a close working product trio. 

A product team is like a three-piece band. The PM sets the beat, the designer adds the melody, and the tech lead rocks the technical aspects.

Together they fill stadiums with fans.

There is more

Building companies is like building with plastic blocks you used to play with as a child. Product Trio is one of those blocks:

Explore other from 100+ best practices used by successful product tech companies:

Discover 100+ best practices

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