I believe in the double-diamond, triad-based development approach to product development - from my past experience, this is the most effective way empower teams of individuals to build products that users love and that create significant customer value. I also believe this also helps shape a culture that top talent loves to work in.
A triad-based "scrum" team with a partnership between Engineering, Design, Product where each function has a seat at the table (scales up from 1 to N teams as the company grows):
| Role | Owns | Represents |
|---|---|---|
| Product | • building software that delivers differentiated user value | |
| • prioritization and roadmap | ||
| • requirements and scope definition | ||
| • customer relationships (in partnership with sales) | ||
| • internal xfn relationships (gtm, customer support, ops, community) | • buyer’s needs (via customer research) | |
| • user’s needs (shared with Design, via user research) | ||
| • company vision / strategy | ||
| • GTM strategy + tactics (sales, marketing, education, community, support) | ||
| Design | • building software that delivers differentiated user value | |
| • design aesthetic and language | ||
| • end-to-end user experience including the information hierarchy | • user’s needs (shared with Product, via user research) | |
| Engineering | • building software that delivers differentiated user value | |
| • technical architecture | ||
| • technical implementation | ||
| • technical debt management | • technology capabilities and constraints |
Sources: thanks Jay Kaufmann for extending the triad analogy to a tripod/cannon, credit to this article for the shamelessly borrowed real world example