TL;DR:
- Assumptions and miscommunication fueled growing frustration and animosity between product and design.
- Lots of finger-pointing.
- We were able to get leaders together and align on the root causes of all of the problems.
- Assembled an ad-hoc team to collaborate and align on better ways to work which led to a reduction in time to market by 65%.
- We did this with another company and reduced their time to market by 360%.
After taking on a leadership role at a large financial services company, it became clear there was deep friction and growing tension between product and design. Finger-pointing escalated, with each group blaming the other for opaque processes and creating needless additional work. These problems almost always resulted in missed deadlines and, ultimately, lost revenue.
To identify the root causes of the problems between the two groups, we brought their leaders together in a workshop. After just a few hours, it quickly became apparent that no one was aligned on roles, responsibilities, accountability, and communication. Existing processes had severe gaps and overlaps that were not easily seen from either side.
We aligned the leaders on a set of expectations and created an ad hoc team made up of representatives from both groups. We coached the combined team through the co-creation of roles, responsibilities, and a new set of new SLAs that radically improved relations between the departments—employee morale—and reduced time to market by 65%.
Years later we did this again at a boutique agency and improved their time to market by 360%.
