Learning your org structure teaches you who has power, who you need to influence. Many tech companies form cross-functional teams to manage products in what’s called a Matrix structure. Product, engineering, UX, and sometimes even marketing and sales are all dedicated to a product, product line, or market segment. For example, Philips’ Consumer Health division uses cross-functional product teams for oral healthcare and respiratory care.
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Matrix teams collaborate better across functions because they own the mission together. As in a Functional org (which I discussed last week), though, everybody still reports into separate department. Most of us have had someone from the team reassigned to a special project just when we needed them most. Avoiding conflicting priorities means you have to influence the bosses of every team member.
I have more structures in Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders, Chapter 1, Organization.
Lots of Product Talks in May
Product Culture coach Phil Hornby will be speaking on Creating Empowered Teams at La Product Conf Paris, May 20. He will be speaking on Going Beyond the Now-Next-Later Roadmap at ProductTank Paris, May 21.
Product Culture coach Melissa Appel and I will be speaking on Taming the Toughest Stakeholders on World Product Day, ProductTank Mid-Atlantic, virtual, May 21. You can book a virtual coaching session with Melissa here.
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