I’m often asked how best to manage dependencies between teams. My answer is… don’t!
The best way to reduce the drag introduced by dependencies among teams is to eliminate the dependencies. This requires making the teams able to operate independently, to be autonomous. In practice, this means a few things must be true. Autonomous teams must have:
A clear mission or vision
All the skills and authority necessary to pursue that vision
Few enough members (3-7) that communication is informal and frequent
What else? What key success attributes have you found necessary? Tell me a story.
Events
I'll be speaking on Defund the Department: How Outcome Teams Are Replacing Functional Silos at the ProductLed Summit, a free product conference January 26-28. Enjoy!