The Role of the Product Team in ZeroBlockers

A well-structured product organisation consists of two key layers:

1. Stream Teams – These are cross-functional teams of designers, developers, marketers, and researchers, each assigned to a specific value stream within the product. Their focus is on delivering features and improvements that enhance their part of the product.

2. The Product Team – This team operates at a higher level, ensuring that all Stream Teams are aligned with the broader product vision, strategy, and business objectives. It is staffed with a Product Manager and function-specific leads, including a Dev Lead, Design Lead, Research Lead, Marketing Lead, and Sales Lead. Rather than directly contributing to feature development, the Product Team creates the conditions for Stream Teams to succeed.

But this structure begs the question, if the Stream Teams are responsible for building the product, what does the Product Team do? The Product Team operates at a higher level, ensuring alignment, resourcing, and effectiveness across all Stream Teams. They create an environment that enables Stream Teams to succeed by setting clear objectives, removing roadblocks, and maintaining alignment across functions. The McKinsey 7-S model is a useful framework for understanding the role of the Product Team.

Applying the McKinsey 7-S Model to the Product Team

The McKinsey 7-S model identifies seven elements that must be aligned for an organisation to be successful: strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff, and skills.

1. Structure: Defining Team Boundaries and Funding

The Product Team determines the boundaries of each Stream Team, ensuring they have clear mandates and areas of ownership. This includes:

• Deciding how many teams are needed and how they are structured.

• Allocating funding and resources across teams based on strategic priorities.

• Determining team composition, ensuring that each team has the right mix of designers, developers, marketers, and researchers.

By setting clear boundaries, the Product Team prevents duplication of work and ensures each Stream Team has the autonomy to deliver value effectively.

2. Strategy: Defining Product Vision and Strategy

While Stream Teams focus on execution, the Product Team defines the product vision and strategy:

• Vision (Long-Term): Defines the ultimate goal of the product, outlining where the company aims to be in 5-10 years.

• Strategy (Medium-Term): Lays out the path to achieving the vision, focusing on priorities over the next 1-3 years.

• Objectives & Key Results (OKRs): The Product Team sets OKRs to align Stream Teams around measurable outcomes.

By providing this direction, the Product Team ensures that every Stream Team’s work contributes to the broader company objectives.

3. Style: Situational Leadership and Empowerment

The Product Team embraces a situational leadership approach, recognising that different teams and individuals require different levels of guidance. The preferred leadership style includes:

• Servant Leadership: Empowering teams by providing support rather than dictating solutions.

• Outcome-Driven Management: Measuring success based on outcomes (e.g., increased customer engagement) rather than outputs (e.g., number of features shipped).

• Certify, Don’t Brief Approach: Instead of dictating priorities, the Product Team asks Stream Teams to explain their prioritisation decisions and justify them based on data and impact.

4. Staff: Recruitment and Hiring Responsibilities

While Stream Teams focus on execution, each functional lead within the Product Team is responsible for recruitment within their domain:

• The Dev Lead hires developers.

• The Design Lead hires designers.

• The Research Lead hires user researchers.

• The Marketing Lead hires marketers.

• The Sales Lead hires sales personnel.

This structure ensures that hiring decisions are made by domain experts who understand the specific needs of their function.

5. Skills: Identifying Gaps and Enabling Growth

The Product Team collaborates with Enabling Teams to define best practices and skill expectations. Their responsibilities include:

• Identifying what ‘good’ looks like for each function (e.g., what makes a great researcher or developer).

• Recognising skill gaps across teams and addressing them through training, mentorship, or hiring.

• Providing growth pathways for individuals to develop within their roles.

By fostering skill development, the Product Team ensures Stream Teams have the expertise necessary to execute effectively.

6. Shared Values: Defining Product Principles

To create consistency across teams, the Product Team defines Shared Values that guide decision-making across disciplines. These include:

• Product Principles: Guidelines for making prioritisation and trade-off decisions.

• Development Principles: Best practices for coding, testing, and releasing features.

• Research Principles: Standards for conducting user research and interpreting findings.

• Design Principles: Rules for crafting user-friendly and visually consistent experiences.

• Marketing Principles: Strategies for positioning and communicating the product effectively.

These shared values create alignment and a strong cultural foundation across teams.

7. Systems: Defining Processes, Policies, and Conflict Resolution

The Product Team establishes systems that enable Stream Teams to work efficiently:

• Process Vision: Striving for zero-blocking dependencies, ensuring that ideas can move from concept to customer without unnecessary delays.

• Conflict Resolution Policies: Defining a structured way to handle disagreements between teams, ensuring quick resolution and minimal friction.

• Remuneration and Reward Structures: Aligning incentives with team and company goals.

• Project Management Policies: Deciding when cross-functional projects require centralised coordination versus autonomous execution.

By defining these systems, the Product Team ensures that Stream Teams operate smoothly without bureaucratic bottlenecks.

The Role of the Product Manager

Unlike other functional leads, the Product Manager does not oversee recruitment (Staff) or skill development (Skills) because there are no product managers at the Stream Team level. Instead, the PM plays a critical role in staying deeply connected to Stream Teams, ensuring alignment between strategy and execution. Key responsibilities include:

1. Deep Involvement in Customer Research

The PM attends customer interviews and ideation sessions conducted by Stream Teams. This ensures that strategic decisions are based on first-hand customer insights rather than second-hand reports.

2. Enforcing a “Certify, Don’t Brief” Approach

Rather than dictating what Stream Teams should work on, the PM asks teams to explain their prioritisation decisions. This approach ensures that teams:

• Think critically about their choices.

• Use data to back up decisions.

• Maintain accountability for their roadmaps.

3. Ensuring Cross-Stream Alignment

The PM works across all Stream Teams, identifying dependencies, facilitating collaboration, and ensuring that teams remain aligned with the overarching product strategy.

Conclusion

The Product Team is not just another layer of management, it is an enabling force that ensures Stream Teams have the resources, clarity, and autonomy to deliver value effectively. By applying the McKinsey 7-S model, the Product Team establishes a strong foundation through structure, strategy, leadership, recruitment, skill-building, shared values, and systems. This approach also has the benefit of reducing the risks associated with empowering autonomous teams. Meanwhile, the Product Manager plays a crucial role in bridging strategy and execution, ensuring that decisions remain customer-driven and teams stay accountable.

Through this approach, organisations can scale product development while maintaining quality and strategic alignment, creating better outcomes for customers and the business alike.