Navigating the Shift from Feature to Product Teams and Building a Product Mindset
Insights from my journey at Translated: Building a product mindset, transforming feature teams into product teams, and mastering the art of constructive feedback.
Ciao,
The first month of 2024 brought many new friends to this newsletter: the Radical Curiosity community grew to 890 readers. January was also rewarding for my work at Translated as head of TranslationOS, the platform with which the company manages much of the continuous localization activities of tech corporations such as AirBnB, Glovo, and many others I cannot name.
Table of Contents
Navigating the Shift from Feature to Product Teams at Translated
How to give good feedback: situation, behavior, impact (by Luca Sartoni)
Apple Vision Pro: is it spatial computing or just another (high-end) VR headset?
Unlocking High-Performance Product Teams by Irina Vasilkova (Meta, Avon, L'Oréal)
Navigating the Shift from Feature to Product Teams at Translated
Translated is a rapidly expanding company, and I find it fascinating to be part of an organization transitioning from what I term the heroic phase — where everything centers around the founders — to a phase where business growth increasingly relies on selecting capable managers, cultivating a corporate culture, and pursuing new ideas without losing focus.
Transitioning from feature to product teams
Throughout 2023, my product management team comprised one product manager and myself. Together, we managed two engineering teams with a very clear goal: to turn them into product teams, as defined by Marty Cagan (Product vs Feature Teams):
Specifically, they are cross-functional (product, design and engineering); they are focused on and measured by outcomes (rather than output); and they are empowered to figure out the best way to solve the problems they’ve been asked to solve.
[…]
In product there are always four risks to manage:
Value risk (will people buy it, or choose to use it?)
Usability risk (can users figure out how to use it?)
Feasibility risk (can we build it with the time, skills, and technology we have?)
Business Viability risk (will this solution work for the various dimensions of our business?)
In an empowered product team, the product manager is explicitly responsible for ensuring value and viability; the designer is responsible for ensuring usability; and the tech lead is responsible for ensuring feasibility. The team does this by truly collaborating in an intense, give and take, in order to discover a solution that work for all of us.
[…]
However, in a feature team, you still (hopefully) have a designer to ensure usability, and you have engineers to ensure feasibility, but, and this is critical to understand: the value and business viability are the responsibility of the stakeholder or executive that requested the feature on the roadmap.
If they say they need you to build feature x, then they believe feature x will deliver some amount of value, and they believe that feature x is something that is viable for the business.
It’s worth pointing out that even though the stakeholder is the one implicitly responsible for value and viability, they will still find a way to blame you and your team if their hoped-for results are not realized. It took too long, the design was bad, critical capabilities were cut to make the date, etc. And of course your team was probably never convinced this was worth building in the first place. It’s an old song and I’ve written extensively about this problem.
Of course, the transition from one model (feature teams) to another (product teams) is not painless: there is a lot of resistance and misunderstanding, and the risk of failure is very high. But it is worth the risk.
Learning how localization works
While reorganizing teams, I also had to learn how the localization industry works. I find it very interesting and sometimes quite tedious.
The most interesting thing about localization is the impact of artificial intelligence, which has a dual effect:
Job destruction. Undoubtedly, improved machine translation will allow companies to eliminate most human translators. Those that remain will either be primarily supervising the work of the machines or will be engaged in niche activities such as translating quality literature. All content in which linguistic style and quality play a minor role (for example, knowledge bases) will be translated by machines.
Creation of new business areas. Like all paradigm-changing technologies, artificial intelligence in the localization industry produces many new opportunities. For example, only thanks to machine translation can AirBnB localize all the listings in over sixty languages or provide a real-time localization service for users’ chats. Similarly, thanks to artificial voices, any content can be dubbed at an affordable cost. It is not hard to imagine a future in which personalized text, audio, and video content will be generated in real-time in any language.
Having the opportunity to participate in this paradigm shift is undoubtedly extremely interesting.
The tedious part of this industry is the endless details that need to be managed. These details depend on the fact that language is intrinsically complex, that content is stored on very different mediums (from platforms such as CMS, CRMs, Office files, localization files such as XLIFFs), that each company tends to have its way of managing the localization process (in fact, I have been amazed to see how little standardization there is in this industry).
A growing team: new responsibilities
In January, my product management team at Translated grew from two to five. On the one hand, it is very rewarding; on the other hand, growth brings new responsibilities and duties.
The company has recently introduced a people management platform and an elaborate system of evaluation and cross-feedback. I confess to having a love-hate relationship with these business practices. In addition to being another activity to do, they force you to write down what you think about colleagues: very easy when there is an esteemed and productive relationship, a little less so when you are dealing with people with whom you have some conflicting priorities or don’t get along so well.
Today, you can rely on ChatGPT to write feedback and quickly get it off your chest, making colleagues and HR management happy. Or, you can invest some time and take the opportunity to explore the relationship with another human being while trying to nurture it positively by staying honest. I tried that this year; I hope I succeeded. I know I have a lot of room for improvement and that I need to study.
How to give good feedback: situation, behavior, impact (by Luca Sartoni)
When it comes to advice on being a good leader, my friend Luca Sartoni is a reference that never disappoints. I found this post on constructively organizing feedback in his blog. Don't forget to subscribe to his newsletter, The Owl and the Beetle.
Appreciation is a strong form of feedback and it can be sharpened to achieve extraordinary results.
Every time we want to acknowledge, motivate, or reinforce good behaviors, we naturally resort to appreciation.
We say “Well done!” to our toddler who finally puts on their shoes by themselves for the first time, or “Great job!” to our team member who completed an excellent project on time and under budget. But it’s just not enough to have long-term effects.
When people complain they don’t receive enough feedback, they mean that they wonder if anyone notices how hard they are working and if anyone cares about their contribution. They are signaling a lack of appreciation.
However, to obtain extraordinary results, it’s not enough to raise the quantity of recognition, we need to elevate its quality as well. To do so, we can start practicing the “Situation – Behaviour – Impact” framework. This tool is terrific for both beginners and more seasoned managers. Used correctly, it is quite a powerful instrument.
SBI demystified
Every time we want to give a piece of feedback, we follow the “Situation, Behaviour, Impact” (SBI) framework to package high-quality, easy to consume, and highly leverageable nuggets of input.
“Situation” frames your feedback in time and space. It makes it contextual:
“Yesterday on our way to school.”
“Last week at the team meeting.”
“This morning while having breakfast.”
“Behaviour” represents an action that was performed. It’s important to describe it with a verb and to be as factual as possible, ideally like it was recorded by a camera or a microphone, without any judgment or assignment of intent to it:
“You thanked your sister for her help.”
“You offered to pick up that project.”
“You complimented your grandchild for his new haircut.”
“Impact” is a description of the emotional state that this behavior had on you.
“It felt so heartwarming seeing you two supporting each other.”
“I was impressed by your sense of ownership.”
“It makes me happy to see how you have moved past your disagreements.”
Let’s combine the above examples in order to see them together:
Yesterday on our way to school, you thanked your sister for her help. It felt so heartwarming seeing you two supporting each other.
Last week at the team meeting, you offered to pick up that project. I was impressed by your sense of ownership.
This morning while having breakfast, you complimented your grandchild for his new haircut. It makes me happy to see how you have moved past your disagreements.
Now that we know how to produce a powerful nugget of appreciation, let’s lay out the three ways to deliver these nuggets and the purpose behind them.
Appreciation in Private
The most common form of appreciation happens in private. We deliver it directly to the person we want to recognize. It can come in various forms: a private conversation with our child, in the car, on the way to school. It can be part of a one-on-one with one of our team members. It can be handwritten on a holiday card we send overseas to a distant relative.
Appreciation in private is a great way to reinforce personal positive behaviors and provide relished validation.
Appreciation in Public
They say “Criticize in private, praise in public”. Well, this is just that! Appreciation in public is a great way to showcase positive behaviors. It amplifies the validation towards the individual, inspires others, providing good models to follow. It can be a praise to our child in front of their siblings, a compliment to our team member during a meeting, sometimes even comments on social media may do the job.
Appreciation in Absence
I consider this the ultimate form of appreciative feedback. It goes a long way when rewarding high performers. It can be delivered by itself, or in addition to the previous two forms. It happens when the appreciation —packaged in the SBI form — is not delivered to the subject, but rather to an involved third party.
It can be a praise to our child’s best friend who is particularly polite when visiting our house, delivered to their parents in the form of a handwritten note.
It can be an email to the CEO of a partner company, praising their employee who contributed to the success of a recent conference which was organized together.
If we look carefully, we are surrounded by signs of appreciation in absence. Every public monument, statue, or street that is named after a person, is a form of appreciation in absence. Probably a little too much for our purpose, but you got the point, didn’t you?
To elevate our appreciation and to reward positive behaviors, I say this: “appreciate often, appreciate properly, and appreciate with purpose.”
Luca Sartoni
Apple Vision Pro: is it spatial computing or just another (high-end) VR headset?
This week, there has been nothing but talk about the Apple Vision Pro. The reviews all look a bit alike: if you want an idea, I recommend this one from Marques Brownlee.
0:00 Intro
2:48 Immersiveness
6:35 Looking through glass
9:10 The Ecosystem
13:17 The Apps
16:06 The Comfort Issue
19:55 Eyes on the outside
21:40 So should you buy It?
Unlocking High-Performance Product Teams by Irina Vasilkova (Meta, Avon, L'Oréal)
This summary is generated automatically by ChatGPT:
In the presentation, Irina Vasilkova, a product and product marketing professional, discussed the key elements of unlocking high-performance product teams. She emphasized the importance of starting with people and understanding their needs, motivations, and work patterns.
Irina highlighted the significance of team dynamics, fostering collaboration, and decoding team needs to enhance productivity and motivation. She stressed the need for a specific mindset when building high-performing teams, including alignment with product strategy, customer obsession, empowerment, and a collaborative team mindset.
Irina outlined the building blocks of a high-performance team leader's mindset, emphasizing clarity on strategy and objectives, high emotional intelligence, team empowerment, and support. She also discussed the importance of managing team professional growth and creating a safe space for open communication and feedback.
Furthermore, Irina delved into the concept of team personas, using the color animal personality identifier test to understand team members’ strengths, differences, and collaboration strategies. She highlighted the characteristics and motivations of different personality types, such as owls, panthers, dolphins, and peacocks, and provided insights into effectively collaborating with each type.
Irina also discussed the process of bringing new members into a team, emphasizing the importance of hiring individuals with complementary skills and diverse backgrounds to create a well-rounded team. She stressed the significance of ensuring new team members are a good fit and can work harmoniously with existing team members. Additionally, Irina addressed the role of leadership in fulfilling team needs and enhancing productivity. She presented a pyramid model to illustrate the progression of team needs from basic requirements, such as salary and onboarding, to more advanced needs, including integration into the business and tracking team members’ success. Irina emphasized that fulfilling team needs is fundamental to engagement, motivation, and productivity.
Finally, Irina shared recommendations for inspirational books on emotional intelligence, leadership, and personal growth, encouraging the audience to explore these resources for further insights.
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Thanks for taking the time to read this episode of my newsletter. I hope I’ve been helpful. If you think my sketchbook might interest someone else, I’d be glad if you shared it on social media and forwarded it to your friends and colleagues.
Nicola
I like the diverse content you provide here!
I think the shift from feature to product team, came with a lot of challenges. But it was also rewarding for the companies (and I think for employees as well). As engineers we got to work in different domains and learn different tools when it's about a whole product. Not feeling that we are a small cog in a huge machine (at least in mid-sized companies, like the one I work for.)