How the best product teams work

The quality distribution of product teams probably resembles something like a bell curve. Most teams are in the middle: average, sometimes doing good things, sometimes not. A smaller portion are plain terrible. Then there’s the small portion at the front of the curve who are consistently excellent, and seemingly doing everything right.

So, what’s the difference between these top product teams and the rest?

The distribution of product teams

I’ve been lucky enough to attend multiple workshops with Marty Cagan, where he describes how the best product teams work. It’s also exactly the fundamental differences I’ve seen in my career, where I’ve worked in teams right across the span of that bell curve.

What I’ve learned is that there is a profound difference between how the very best product companies create technology products and all the rest. And I don’t mean minor differences. — Marty Cagan

So, let’s take a look at what those differences are.

Three Types of Product Teams

Firstly, in summary, these are the characteristics of the three types of product teams you’ll generally find:

Delivery Teams (the unfortunate left side of the bell curve)

• Primarily exist to serve the business stakeholders