How to drive your product team to success
Insights from a Team Ideation Day at tb.lx
The Battery Health team at tb.lx went through a moral boosting exercise, led by their recently arrived Product Manager Nikita Savytskyi, who we interviewed for this article. Keep reading to find out how their Team Ideation Day unfolded, and learn how to implement this activity to make your team more efficient and point them towards success.
The Theory: Find your strengths and your “weakest link”
One of the main challenges of creating a successful product is identifying the product itself. For us, an important step when kicking off a new product is to shape it and start productizing internally and externally right from the beginning. When it comes to Battery Health, we are talking about our new solution to help customers leverage and care for electric vehicle batteries. Getting the team to identify their strengths along with the problems they’re trying to solve was crucial to launch them into a successful development.
“We started with a discussion of what efficiency is. It’s not doing more things, but rather from all the things which you can do, identifying those most important and focusing on them. I was sharing my experience of using the theory of constraints.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
The Theory of Constraints was designed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in the 1970s, and it represents any system as a chain with different links, which are different in size and in strength. The basic premise is that when you pull the chain, it will always break at the weakest link. So, in order to be efficient as a team you need to identify this weakest link, i.e. the root problem hindering your performance.
“This was the bit of theory before we started the actual exercise. To get started, we had a discussion about focusing on the strengths. Some people wondered why we don’t focus on the weaknesses, so that we can improve them. But people only change through the feedback of the people they trust. And in most cases, change is not based on feedback but rather on the situations. If the circumstances don’t change, then we aren’t going to change.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
The Exercise: Try it with your team
Give everyone a piece of paper and write five strengths they think they have. Then, in another piece of paper, write three things you love about working with each of your colleagues. When everyone is done, stick all the papers or post-its to the white board, and read them together.
“We discovered that the way I see myself may be completely different from what other people see in me. We also found out that different people see the same things in me, while I don’t see it. So, in the end, I’m putting a lot of effort in projecting to the outer world these 5 strengths, but nobody is getting this message. It’s inefficient. Instead, I need to focus on these 3 which my colleagues see that I’m strong at.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
After identifying their strengths, the team moved on to identify their reality. For this, Nikita asked everyone to formulate problem statements. For example, the car is not working, the gas tank is empty, the tires are flat. Again, they put each card on the wall, and grouped them:
“For every problem statement we identified the consequences, and matched other problems with the same consequence, ultimately reaching the root cause for several problems. By expanding and deep diving into problems we can identify the underlying issue that influences 70 to 75% of all the problems. That is the weakest link. We also discussed the things which I can change, the things which I can influence and the things which I can’t change or influence. Having this in mind, we look at the root cause and see at which point of the chain we can exert change.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
What changed after this?
This exercise was a big wow-moment for our Battery Health team. It not only created a stronger bond between everyone, but it also gave them the recognition and motivation boost needed to start a new project.
“We took the learnings and applied them to our daily meetings. Whenever we have a topic to discuss, I ask direct questions to people based on their strengths. For example, one person I would ask ‘what do you think are the risks?’, while I would ask another person ‘how do you think this will fit into the future?’, or ‘how can we structure this?’.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
One of the main findings of this activity is that the team is very well balanced. While one person is really good at architecture and seeing how complexity can be simplified, another one has a really good sense of future, risk assessment, and how changes now can affect the future. And the next one is really good at structuring, protecting the team, creating a safe space and making sure that the team can work safely and efficiently.
So, when everyone becomes aware of their strong points, they can create moments to intervene and contribute with their strengths. And the response was very positive:
“I immediately connected with them because I started with a story. And I showed some examples from my past, so that built trust and it built a bond. Every activity we were doing we did together. I was showing them how they can benefit from this knowledge. It was not something boring or a cliché team day. It was an exercise that allowed them to learn something which they can apply.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
The foundation for a great product — Battery Health
With a refreshed mindset and a sharper focus, the Battery Health team is ready to change the world of electric vehicles. This product is part of a larger ecosystem of eServices that target specific challenges customers might face at the level of charge management, range prediction, and batteries.
The battery is one of the most expensive single components of an eTruck. And when a fleet manager sends a truck on a tour, everyone has to be assured that it can come back. The driver and his driving behavior, the weather conditions, the cargo, are all taken into consideration and together with other eServices Battery Health tells customers if a route is doable or not. It can also have a significant role in public charging, by calculating the charge needed for the route, and proposing which charging station to go. And if you’re buying a truck that has been previously used you also want to know the state of the battery before you buy it.
“We’re thinking of how to make this transition towards electric vehicles easier because if you behave really well with the battery, you can save a lot of money on repairs and maintain the value of the truck. With eServices we’re convincing customers to buy eTrucks for reasons beyond the sustainability aspect.” — Nikita Savytskyi, Product Manager
Our eServices are built to optimize resources — be it the charging station itself, energy, money, or time. Together with all units of Daimler Truck, we’re working not only on eMobility solutions, but also on global connectivity solutions that will “keep the world moving” in an intelligent, connected and sustainable way.
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If you’d like to know more about tb.lx and our products, check tblx.io or find us on social media.
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