3 common reasons product teams get stuck (and how to get them unstuck)

Do your teams get stuck spinning out on an issue for months at a time? Do they seem to have a lot of meetings, but not a lot of results? Are people disengaged when they gather? In my facilitation career, I’ve found that these are all symptoms of some really common issues among teams that frequently stall out. So, how do we remedy these problems to create forward momentum for the work?

In this article, I’ll cover the three common reasons why your teams are probably getting stuck, along with a solution that I’ve seen work time and time again for getting them out of the weeds and back on track.

The 3 most common reasons why teams get stuck

Often, a team’s inability to get sh*t done is due to a lack of focus, lack of support, and/or lack of alignment. If your team is stuck, they may be experiencing one of these symptoms, or a combination.

Let’s talk about what each issue looks like so you can better diagnose what the underlying problem might be with your team, along with the most powerful way to remedy the issue: dedicated time to collaborate, also known as WORKSHOPS.

Common Issue #1: Team discord + lack of alignment

One of the most common issues I see among teams struggling to accomplish collaborative work is a lack of alignment and a general inability to work well together. There may be fighting, disagreement over priorities, or power struggles and political dynamics at play.

As a facilitator, I’m biased toward using a workshop to solve this issue — there’s some serious power behind hosting a dedicated session to solve a dedicated issue.

With regard to this particular challenge, a workshop is a game changer because you get to use proven facilitation tools and methods that dissolve resistance among teams and foster better collaboration (here are a few methods I love to use to accomplish that). For example:

• Structured feedback like, “I like…., I wish…., I wonder…” creates parameters for input so that folks stay on subject and uniform with their musings.
• Timed feedback with an actual timer allows you to very diplomatically set the stage for X min of feedback per person (no matter their title). Establishing ground rules that everyone needs to follow keeps things moving and depersonalizes the “cut-off” mark.
• Anonymous voting and input allows the best ideas to win fairly so that senior titles and loud voices aren’t swaying the group (check out #5 on this list to see how to run your own anonymous voting or idea sharing sessions).

I could go on, but I’ll leave it at this: when you design a workshop in a way that neutralizes politics and levels the playing field, people are forced to decenter themselves and focus on moving the initiative forward.

Common Issue #2: Expending too much time and energy

Another common challenge for teams working on a big initiative is the inability to focus their time and energy on the effort. When an initiative gets stretched out over a long timeline and competes with regular/daily job responsibilities, people tend to deprioritize the former. You might also see time being used inefficiently as work starts and stops again and again, also known as “switching cost.”

Once again, a workshop inherently solves the issue because a condensed timeline helps people focus their time and energy 100% on the task at hand. Clearing people’s schedules and blocking their calendars frees them from being distracted by other work, and several days of continuous focus on the problem creates a mainline to solutions and gets people excited about the work. This is critical because it inspires ownership and accountability beyond the workshop, and that’s important for maintaining momentum after your session.

Common Issue #3: Lack of support or buy-in from others

Even when your team is beautifully aligned and ready to press onward, work can sometimes stall out when the necessary stakeholders or broader organization fails to buy into the work. A prototype or set of sketches can go a long way in helping the people beyond your team understand the vision so they can approve or fund the project.

Again, this is the beautiful part of a workshop, like a Design Sprint, because the agenda includes not only the creation of a prototype or sketches, but it also includes a customer validation process so you can be sure that what you’re working on has been reviewed/modified/approved by your key customer.

This is helpful because it not only validates the work with your customer, but it also shows stakeholders that you’ve done your homework and have identified a solution/option worth pursuing.

For more on managing stakeholder relationships, check out this article.

Workshops are one of the most powerful tools we have to get teams unstuck

Proven methods, activities, and tools can get your teams out of the weeds and focused on the work rather than the drama, distractions, competing deadlines, etc. Running a workshop is one of the most effective and impactful ways to put all of those elements into action — I know because I’ve seen it work hundreds of times in my career.

If you’re new to leading workshops, check out this survival guide for tips on navigating this experience, or this post for guidance that will help you lead with confidence.

If running an internal workshop for your team feels too overwhelming or political, send me a note and we’ll talk about how I might help your group get unstuck.

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