AMA: Asana Head of Product Operations, Saikat Paul on Product Operations

Change is inevitable. In product operations, designing adaptable processes to navigate it is key. How? This three-pronged approach minimizes the pain of pivoting and keeps us agile: * Explicit Decision Points: Each process stage should culminate in a clear decision point. Think research informing a "pain to solve" choice, with the freedom to even disinvest based on findings. We embrace this at Asana. Our PMs regularly choose to "persevere, pivot, or quit" at key milestones, and each path is celebrated. Walking away can be as valuable as delivery. * Shared Responsibility: Foster a culture of questioning. Encourage team members to voice concerns and actively ask, "Are we on the right track?" Transparency is crucial. Be open about decisions, rationale, and considered options. Share progress updates, good or bad, to build trust and engagement. * Celebrating Change: Redefine success. It's not just about what we build, but also what we don't. In a resource-constrained world, making judicious choices matters. When we celebrate decisions to walk away from sunk costs or pivot, we remove the stigma of change and empower teams to embrace it as a driver of progress.

The most important thing I’ve learned about feedback is that it is not given unless requested and is predicated on a safe environment. Hearing 'everything is great' feels good, but it often masks areas for improvement. We've learned that the most valuable feedback reveals both strengths and weaknesses. We need to know what didn’t work so we can address it. But how do we get folks to be honest and forthright? While some people naturally share feedback openly, others might hesitate due to fear of judgment or negative consequences. We need to create a safe environment where everyone is comfortable speaking their mind. * Cultivate a safe space by practicing active listening, refraining from defensiveness, and responding with genuine curiosity and appreciation. * Offer a variety of channels to cater to different needs, from anonymous surveys for sensitive topics to open group discussions for brainstorming * Always follow up. Highlight when feedback has led to process improvements to show folks their responses are not going into a black box. By actively fostering a safe and open environment, we ensure our processes benefit from the collective wisdom and diverse perspectives of our team, leading to continuous improvement and sustainable success.

An environment for effective collaboration requires continuous support and nurturing, all built on a foundation of trust and transparency 🌱 Trust and transparency * Shared Goals and KPIs: Align everyone on company-wide goals and show how each department can contribute to the bigger picture. This creates a sense of shared purpose and motivates collaborative efforts. * At Asana we call this the Pyramid of Clarity * Transparency in decision-making and information sharing: Be honest and forthright with decisions and status updates. Share rationale and options considered for decisions. Keep status updates public, whether on track or off. This fosters trust and engagement. * Celebrate Shared Successes: Recognize and celebrate achievements that involve multiple teams. This reinforces the value of collaboration and builds trust between departments. Clear agreements * Clear RACI: This prevents confusion and ensures accountability across departments. * Standardized Handoffs: Establish standardized processes for handoffs between teams, including documenting deliverables, timelines, and expectations. This minimizes friction and prevents delays. * Align on a source of truth: Invest in shared dashboards or drives that allow everyone to access the same information. This creates alignment on artifacts and reduces confusion. Build bridges * Social Events and Activities: Encourage informal interaction through team-building activities or social events. This builds personal connections and strengthens interdepartmental relationships. * Spread the word: Highlight where collaboration practices are flourishing and experiment with replicating them. This creates a more grassroots process. * Feedback Loops: Regularly gather feedback from all departments on the effectiveness of collaboration efforts. This helps identify areas for improvement. These are just some starting points. Successful collaboration is a continuous journey that requires consistent nurturing. Establish the foundation of trust and transparency and the rest will follow.

This is very similar to the question, "How do you manage changes in product strategy or direction and ensure that operational processes remain adaptable?" Please see that answer

This is an easy one for me 🙂 I’m very lucky to be at a company where we can actually dogfood our product 24/7. As an operations lead, Asana is my tool of choice (de facto or not). I love the flexibility of the data model, the power of automations, and the ease of use. At Asana, dogfooding is a way of life- from culinary to sales to product operations, we are all in Asana every day. But I’m not answering this question just to boast 😉. I’ve been in situations at previous jobs where we had to make tooling decisions. The primary questions I ask are: * How easy is it to adopt? * Watch out for complex usage patterns, a lack of help docs, or a general lack of intuitiveness in product flows * If you need to peer over someone’s shoulder to make sure they’re using the tool correctly, then adoption is going to be an uphill battle * How will it scale? * Can the tool solve your problems today AND a year out? * Can it support your team size now AND when it’s grown two-fold? * Is the cost:benefit ratio fair? * What’s the seat cost and how much time will it save or how much clarity will it provide? * Tools should not make solely ops’ lives easier- they should make everyone’s lives easier

I leverage a variety of methodologies and frameworks to streamline operations, depending on the specific challenge and context. Here are some of my go-to tools: Lean Methodologies: * Identify and eliminate waste: Monitor cycle times to find waste and bottlenecks in your processes. Did an approval by a manager take 3+ weeks? Consider recontracting around an SLA. Are folks spending hours navigating and creating tasks? Consider what could be automated. * Continuous improvement: Always be on the lookout for small, incremental improvements. Implement, experiment, and iterate. Agile Frameworks: * Scrum: It’s pretty much the standard for managing iterative and incremental development. Sprints allow for rapid test and learn cycles and standups provide great transparency. * Kanban: Great for managing queue-based workstreams, often for support or service teams. Visualizing workflow stages and limiting work in progress helps me identify team capacity issues or process opportunities. Design Thinking: * Human-centered design: When designing new processes or experiences, I try to put myself in the shoes of the end users. What do they need? How can I partner with them to prototype and iterate to get to an optimal solution? DevOps Principles: * Automation and collaboration: CI/CD drastically reduces the time from ideation to validation. The faster you can test an idea, the faster you can traingulate the optimal solution and deliver it. Data-Driven Decision Making: * Metrics and analytics: Lean on data and analytics to identify areas for improvement, track progress, and measure the effectiveness of your solutions. Don’t lean on intuition and anecdotes. Beyond specific methodologies, I also prioritize: * Standardization & Documentation: Maintain a source of truth to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge and efficiently onboard new team members. * Solicit feedback: Actively seek feedback to identify areas for improvement and keep processes relevant. * Sense of community: Encourage knowledge sharing and empathy-building across functions Ultimately, the best methodology is the one that works for the challenge at hand. Don’t lean on one approach too much and don’t be dogmatic. Each methodology is a tool that you can utilize and adapt to streamline operations and optimize performance. And of course, always experiment, adapt, and never consider your job done.