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How do you drive alignment across all parts of the organization?

Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product ManagementJuly 27

Oftentimes as a Product leader, I am tasked with cross-functional work across Go-to-market, R&D, and finance. One of the most critical aspects of cross-functional is to drive clarity. This can be done by following three practices: 

  1. Have a published single-source-of-truth charter where current status and archived information live. This repository can be a word document, google sheet, or even a static website. You will want to add "pins" to any relevant documents or links at the top for easy access. 
  2. Determine a regular cadence for team syncs 
  3. Provide continual async updates and link back to the SSOT (number 1) so people who are unable to attend syncs can reference the materials later 
  4. Overcommunicate and overshare the goals and results of the cross-functional work 

Point 4 is one to belabor. This overcommunication creates a sense of focus, collaboration, and clarity on purpose and intent. By using consistent communication, people feel like they understand how they can contribute and where they can support. 

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Ibrahim Bashir
Ibrahim Bashir
Amplitude Vice President, Product ManagementJuly 8

There are obviously a bunch of goal setting / tracking frameworks that are designed to do this (for example OKRs) but I tend to start with where and why any misalignment exists - usually there are 4 levers, and they all come back to strategy:

  1. is the strategy clearly written?
  2. is the strategy broadcast regularly?
  3. is the strategy planned logically?
  4. is the strategy executed effortlessly?
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