Work
Cross+ Functional Teams
Diplomacy, drama & deliverables.
The joys of working with engineering, design, sales, and the occasional legal landmine.There’s a special place in the business world for people who enjoy a bit of chaos with their coffee. I’m talking, of course, about those of us who work in cross-functional teams. If you’ve ever tried to get engineering, design, sales, and legal to agree on anything, let alone deliver it on time, you’ll know it’s less of a well-oiled machine and more of a family road trip where everyone’s lost the map and someone’s allergic to the snacks.
Our vague goal? Build something valuable, usable, feasible, and, crucially, legal. The reality? It’s diplomacy, drama, and deliverables, all rolled into one. Here’s a look at how we muddle through, what we learn, and why, despite the headaches, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The setup:
Everyone wants domething (different).
The brief is simple: launch a new feature that customers will love, that sales can sell, that design can be proud of, and that engineering can build before their hair turns grey. Oh, and make sure legal doesn’t break out in hives. Easy, right?
We start with a kickoff. Everyone’s excited. The product manager (that’s me) lays out the vision, the designers sketch out something beautiful, engineering starts asking about edge cases, sales wants to know when they can begin to promise it to customers, and legal… well, legal wants to see everything in writing, preferably yesterday.
The drama:
Where collaboration meets collision.
Here’s the thing about cross-functional teams: they’re not just a collection of skills, they’re a collection of perspectives, priorities, and, let’s be honest, egos. The magic (and the madness) happens in the overlap.
- Design: “This should be delightful!” They want the user to feel joy. Sometimes, they want the engineers to feel pain.
- Engineering: “Can we build it?” They want to know if the design can be translated into code.
- Sales: “When can I sell it?” They want to promise the moon, ideally by next quarter.
- Legal: “Are we going to get sued?” They want to avoid headlines, fines, and angry letters.
The first few meetings are a flurry of sticky notes, diagrams, and polite nods. Then comes the friction. Sales wants a feature that engineering says will take six months. Design wants an animation that legal thinks might breach accessibility laws. Everyone wants to be heard, and nobody wants to be blamed when it goes wrong.
Diplomacy:
The three Cs (& a lot of tea).
The only way through is what Intercom calls the Three Cs: Communication, Collaboration, and Coordination. We talk. We clarify. We argue (nicely). We set up shared docs, Slack channels, and recurring meetings that everyone pretends to enjoy. We map out who’s doing what, when, and why.
Communication is the lifeblood. If someone goes quiet, it’s either because they’re deep in thought or plotting a coup. Collaboration means we actually work together-no throwing things over the fence. Coordination is about keeping everyone moving in the same direction, even if we occasionally take the scenic route.
We try frameworks, like mapping every activity to one of the Three Cs. We run “how to work with us” sessions, which are half therapy, half group project. Sometimes, we even get creative: Figma’s teams, for example, have used joint research sprints and shared Slack rituals to keep data science and user research aligned, ensuring insights actually translate into product improvements.
The only way through is what Intercom calls the Three Cs: Communication, Collaboration, and Coordination. We talk. We clarify. We argue (nicely). We set up shared docs, Slack channels, and recurring meetings that everyone pretends to enjoy. We map out who’s doing what, when, and why.
Communication is the lifeblood. If someone goes quiet, it’s either because they’re deep in thought or plotting a coup. Collaboration means we work together, not throwing things over the fence. Coordination is about keeping everyone moving in the same direction, even if we occasionally take the scenic route.
We try frameworks, like mapping every activity to one of the Three Cs. We run “how to work with us” sessions, half therapy and half group project. Sometimes, we even get creative: Figma’s teams, for example, have used joint research sprints and shared Slack rituals to keep data science and user research aligned, ensuring insights translate into product improvements.
The legal Landmine:
“Can we even do this?”
Just when you think you’re making progress, legal drops in with a “quick question.” Suddenly, your beautiful feature is a potential GDPR violation, or your clever workaround is a patent minefield. Cue the collective sigh.
This is where the product manager earns their stripes. You need to understand enough about risk-value, viability, usability, and feasibility to know when to push, compromise, and run screaming into the car park. The trick is to get everyone in the same room early, hash out the constraints, and keep the conversation going. If you wait until the end to get involved legally, you’re just asking for trouble.
Experimentation:
The only way forward.
We try things. We fail, often. We learn, occasionally. The best teams embrace rapid experimentation: prototypes, user tests, and quick feedback loops. We don’t aim for consensus (that’s a unicorn), but we strive for valuable, usable, feasible, and viable solutions. If we can’t agree, we run a test and let the results break the tie.
Sometimes, the drama is the point. The tension between perspectives is what makes the result stronger. You're probably not pushing hard enough if you’re not arguing a bit.
What worked, what didn’t,
& what we learned.
- What worked: Getting everyone involved early. Making the process transparent. Treating every disagreement as a chance to learn, not a personal attack. Mapping out who owns which risks (value, usability, feasibility, viability) and letting the experts lead in their area.
- What didn’t: Leaving things to chance. Assuming everyone has the same priorities. Relying on documentation instead of conversation. Waiting until the last minute to ask legal for input.
- What we learned: Cross-functional teams thrive on clarity, trust, and a shared sense of purpose. The best ideas come from the friction between disciplines, not from any one person. And if you want to get anything done, you need to be comfortable with a bit of drama (and maybe keep a stress ball handy).
The impact:
Better products, stronger teams.
When it works, it’s magic. You ship something that solves a real problem, delights users, and makes the business happy. The team feels a sense of ownership and pride. You’ve survived the drama, navigated the diplomacy, and delivered the goods. And yes, you’ve probably aged a bit in the process, but at least you’ve got stories to tell.
The real win? Cross-functional teams don’t just build better products-they build better people. You learn to listen, compromise, fight for what matters, and let go of what doesn’t. You become a little more resilient, a little more humble, and a lot more interesting at dinner parties.
So, next time you find yourself in a meeting with engineering, design, sales, and legal, take a breath. Embrace the chaos. Remember: the drama is temporary, but the deliverables (and the friendships) last a lot longer.
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