Product teams and if you should be in one

This is for you if

• You are a part of a startup (<100 people) in any role or capacity
• That’s it

Photo by Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash

Humans stood the test of time by evolving under duress and pressure. The same can be said for products — and the humans building them. For a product to survive and find customers and eventually surf the waves of product-market fit, it needs typically strong teams, with characteristics enlisted below.

Pardon my lack of experience in having worked in bigger companies. I am going to list down things I learnt in the past decade about what good product teams look like.

1. Everyone is in the product team : The biggest myth that I had to leave India to debunk in my head, is that only tech and design make the product team. If you are in a startup that has one primary product, then you are the product team. An account manager contributes as much into a product as a UX designer does. A customer support rep has as much contribution as that of the lead engineer. A product is only 10% code, its 90% customer understanding. So its important to understand that anyone talking to the customer or learning from him in any capacity, is a massive part of the product team.
2. Hire for attitude, not skill : Who is a good addition to a great product team? I have hired + worked as equals with both kinds : those who were good at the hard skill required to do the job, and those who had the right attitude for the job. Nine out of ten times, the latter tends to stay on and do bigger, greater things. The former is often replaceable.
3. Not limited to your role / selfless : Help those who once laughed at your UI designs. Help those who once demeaned your not-so-well thought out backend architecture. Ask for help without ego and hierarchy getting in the way. Seek curiosity. For anything and everything you come across. Remain childlike, curious, on how the other teams in your startup are doing their jobs. How does it tie to your role. Is there anything you can do to help. Is there anywhere you think they might be able to help you.
   Ask questions that have plagued you, because you never know who might just have the answers. Great product teams stick together.
4. Unafraid of failure : An unpopular opinion doing the rounds on Twitter nowadays : work sleepless nights to become successful. I vehemently agree. Nothing great has ever come out of an individual who never stepped outside of their comfort zone.
   I have spent years trying to understand what makes people NOT do the above? Many reflections of my own actions coupled with those close to me, revealed the unpleasant truth : most of them were just afraid of failing. When a human sees little guarantee of success, his efforts start to marginally decline, and thats okay - thats how we evolved to know where to put our efforts in.
   However, in order to get extraordinary results, its important to put in extraordinary efforts. And for a good product to come about, it must iterate and fail, multiple times. So great product teams must embrace failure, quick relearning and unlearning, and fast shipping.