How I Help Managers Stop Spinning and Deliver Results for Their Product Teams

Avoid these 3 common traps.

Why do so many well-meaning, smart, capable managers struggle to get things done?

If you’re like most managers I’ve worked with, you’re juggling too many priorities. This stands in the way of you solving problems for your teams. And your teams are left waiting—not a good thing in product work (or any work).

Team: When will we start interviewing for the new team member?

Manager: I’m not sure. We have a task force meeting with HR every other week. Our next one is Tuesday. I’ll know more then.

Team: It’s been two months since we decided to backfill John after he left the team. We keep getting stuck on the front-end work without that expertise.

Manager: Got it. We know this is taking longer than it should. But rest assured, we are working it. It’s a top priority.

Managers often take forever to solve problems, despite their best intentions

From my experience, it’s a rampant issue.

The problem is not one of discipline or competence. These managers have plenty. It’s more a matter of fractured focus amidst too many competing demands.

I work in the product world, where this problem has reached a fever pitch.

I see product team after product team suffer as they wait on their managers. Those on the ground toiling to generate value can’t afford long delays. They need questions answered, barriers removed, and mentoring from managers pronto. But instead, they wait.

The teams that managers support need help today, not months from now.

Yet, managers find they juggle too many balls, not taking one downfield to score a goal. They try to keep all they serve happy all the time. But they end up pleasing no one.

This is a real problem that throws a wrench into the gears that flow value.

Why do managers struggle with responsiveness?

I find this dilemma surprising.

You would think those promoted to management are experts at getting things done.

Actually, many were excellent at execution before entering management.

But once they transition from individual contributor to manager, a seismic shift happens. Their responsibilities multiply. Many needs fly at them from all directions. They find they have no time to think. Their day spins with meeting after meeting.

Focus is elusive to the overstretched manager.

And it ends up slowing down value. Problems that need solving for teams pile up waiting on busy managers. The entire system slows to a crawl. 

I’ve seen three common traps snare managers, killing their problem-solving speed.

1. The trap of having too many things in flight.

Does being a good manager mean being a good multitasker?

I find it surprising, but many answer this question, “Yes.” It’s a skill listed on manager resumes, job descriptions, and performance reviews.

Yet, multitasking makes each task take longer—managers don’t have a special pass here.

Many would agree that doing even two things at once makes both take longer to complete. It’s common sense. You are splitting your time between two things. Plus, the context switching piles on more delay (and exhaustion).

Yet, I’ve yet to find a manager who doesn’t do it.

Having only two things in flight would seem like a luxury to them.

I often find managers juggling five to ten priorities at once. How do you think they address this chaos? They spawn a special task force for each that meets on an infrequent cadence. Then, they spend their whole week moving from task force to task force to nudge each ball down the field. The result? You guessed it: progress slows to a crawl.

They have chosen to favor starting instead of finishing.

It’s like they are spinning plates. Most are wobbling and on the verge of falling and crashing on the floor.

We expect teams to focus. Shouldn’t managers do the same?

But it’s not just juggling too much that slows managers down. It’s also the void of teamwork in the management ranks.

2. The trap of dividing and conquering.

Product work requires teamwork.

This is a well-known truth at the team level. You need cross-functional collaboration across product, experience, and engineering team members. Great products use teamwork to flow and capture early value.

But many managers forget teamwork at the management level—a big mistake.

I see managers working solo all the time when they should be working together.

1. A team raises a concern for managers to solve.
2. Management takes the concern and divides up tasks for each functional manager to own.
3. Periodic touchpoints get scheduled to track completion.

This seems responsive on the surface. But it’s not.

It fails because each functional manager is solving in a vacuum. They should solve the problem in a way that supports the other functions. But by working alone, they miss this crucial aspect. While each manager completes his or her tasks, the individual parts aren’t integrated.

Each has a part, nobody has the whole.

Let’s take an example.

Say the team needs help from management. The team has grown too large and needs to split into three teams. Product, experience, and engineering managers each take tasks to split the team.

• The manager from product forms a team of product folks.
• The manager from experience forms a team of experience folks.
• The manager from engineering forms a team of engineering folks.

But that doesn’t result in an effective cross-functional product team, does it? These functional teams will succumb to the waste of hand-offs and siloed decisions.

It would have been more effective if the managers had worked together to split the team. They could’ve caught this oversight early and worked on a cross-functional split. Well, if they have beliefs stuck in conventional Taylorism, they could still end up in the same spot. But that’s a problem for another article, like this one.

Bottom line, functional managers solve team problems better when they work together.

Cross-functional product teams deserve cross-functional solutions from management.

But the lack of manager teaming and taking on too much aren’t the only traps. Delegation presents a third problem. Yes, you heard me right, delegation is a sneaky trap.

3. The trap of delegation.

Delegation is a tempting (yet perilous) way to handle overload.

I find three problems aren’t clear when you decide to delegate.

Problem 1: You are a crucial ingredient. First, you likely delegate to a team without the same political capital or knowledge you have. This is ironic because these are the same type of folks who asked for your help. Not long after you hand off the task, they will need your input, guidance, or influence. This will suck you back into the work. But you don’t have time because you are busy with all your other commitments. You’ll find yourself in the same or worse position you were in before you delegated.

Problem 2: You forgot about the overhead. Delegation appears on the surface like an easy button escape from doing the work. But each task force requires check-ins, decision-making, and problem-solving from you. Once you have many delegations going at once, your calendar will fill back up with this overhead. This extra oversight is yet another thing to add to your overflowing plate.

Problem 3: You replace what you delegate with new commitments. When you delegate, you feel like you have freed up space. Then, another request arrives. Most of us will fill up the free space on our calendar with the new item. This ignores problems 1 and 2 above. It’s a downward spiral that ends in thrashing about trying to keep our heads above water. Meanwhile, our teams are drowning while waiting for us.

Delegation can turn into quicksand pulling you under. And you keep sinking as its hidden problems get heavier and heavier.

You can’t pass the buck on that which you must own.

My Breakthrough, 3-Step Formula to Help Managers Get Things Done for Product Teams

Looking back, my breakthrough is obvious.

Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose. Even the “no-duh” ideas don’t reveal themselves when you are stuck on the busyness hamster wheel.

One day, fourteen years ago, the lightbulb turned on for me

I was working with a group of leaders on a complex change effort at a major global bank. Their plates were overflowing with responsibilities. And their pace of solving them was abysmal. They had no time to think about improving the system. These leaders were starting too much, dividing and conquering, and delegating.

If something didn’t give, they were going to fail.

This was my first foray into a transition from project to product thinking. We were forming cross-functional product teams, coaching them to focus and break dependencies.

The goal was to flow learning and value sooner.

Then, one day, out of nowhere, an idea hit me.

I thought, “We can apply the same behaviors to the management layer that we are applying to the teams.” I couldn’t contain my excitement as I brought the concept to the managers. And, willing to try anything to stop the madness, they agreed to give it a go.

And it’s good they did. This was what saved the change effort from certain failure. It reinvigorated the managers. They made impactful, steady progress not seen in a long time. They were getting things done.

And this shocked and thrilled the teams. Actually, everyone was in awe. Even me.

Here are the three simple steps we applied to the management team (that you can steal and use):

Step 1: Start less to finish more.

Do less at the same time.

Wow. So simple. Yet, so powerful.

Each manager put all needs they owned in a backlog and created a work-in-progress limit of “one need at a time.” They also grouped the needs against the change goals. This allowed them to focus on the most important concerns first.

Context switching stopped and things started getting done.

Focus on fewer tasks, and you too can immediately improve decision-making, energy, and execution

At first, I worked on focus with each individual manager. But we noticed each manager needed to meet with the other managers to complete their task. They were dependent on each other.

We decided they needed to operate as a team, which led us to step 2.

Step 2. Form a leadership team and focus together.

This is when progress skyrocketed.

The managers stopped working solo, on separate tasks. We created a common backlog for the change effort and ordered it by the change goals. Then, the managers pulled one item off the backlog and worked on it as a team until they finished it.

We set aside several blocks of time during the week. Managers used this time to work together in the same place, at the same time, on the same thing.

No hand-offs. No waiting. Better decisions.

Every so often, the managers would still work alone on a task related to the work in focus for the team. But they would return often to the team to integrate their tasks into the team flow and the team mind.

The manager team was cranking in this mode.

They began completing many backlog items per week.

The change effort had moved into high gear. The teams reaped the benefits immediately from each improvement made by the managers.

By working as a leadership team, you too can stay in sync and deliver integrated solutions to your teams faster.

But we still had one remaining problem. Delegation was still a lever they pulled when they needed outside help. And every time they chose it, it came back to haunt them with more work.

So, we implemented step 3 next.

Step 3. Invite help in instead of pushing work out.

Delegation was a hand-off, a loss of control.

So, the management team stopped farming out the work.

Instead, when they required outside expertise, they brought help into the team. Sometimes, this was a separate team, a team member, or another manager.

The help would leave when they solved the problem.

For example, if they needed to hire new people, they didn’t hand this off to the recruiting team. Instead, they brought the recruiting team members into their team. This allowed them to work together with the recruiter and complete the hiring faster. They kept control inside the management team.

By not delegating, they kept the flow moving and eliminated overhead.

At long last, the management team had a strong grip on their work and a laser focus.

Solving problems for their teams faster had a far-reaching impact.

• Teams moved value to users faster with fewer obstacles in their path.
• Users received the gift of working solutions sooner.
• Stakeholders delighted in early business impact.

It was a win-win-win scenario.

You too can experience this improved flow. All you have to do is invite experts in instead of farming out the work.

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It’s time managers stop spinning and start finishing.

As a manager, you only need to decide to take three simple steps.

1. Do less so you can finish more.
2. Form a team of managers and focus.
3. Keep control of your work and invite help in.

These steps are simple but powerful. I know because I’ve seen it work and have experienced it myself.

You might be thinking that you have no choice but to multitask, divide and conquer, and delegate. 

I get it. It’s tempting to fall prey to these traps. But your teams, customers, and business are all waiting on you. Can you really afford to fall into these snares that slow down value? 

Will you try my formula? Will you take that first step?

You too can rein in the chaos and start getting things done again.

Your teams deserve it. Your users deserve it. Your stakeholders deserve it.

You deserve it.

Don’t wait for another late product, frustrated team, or unhappy customer. Start making the shift today to focus, and get stuff done for your teams.

Good luck out there.

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