How Product Managers Resolve Conflicts with Collaborating Departments

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I was asked a question today: How do product managers resolve conflicts with collaborative departments (R&D, operations, and marketing)?

The above problem is a commonplace problem. It not only happens to product managers in Internet companies, but also happens in the communication between personnel in almost all departments and collaborative departments in the company. In other words, this is a problem faced by everyone at work. So, how to solve it? This problem has also happened to me. Next, I will share with you some tips. It may not be applicable to everyone. Take the best.

I have heard many product managers say, "A product manager with a score of 100 can also do an operation with a score of 80. The same is true in reverse. What needs to be considered is actually the team. It is enough to ensure that the product, operation, design, technology, testing and other links are all combined into one fist." I would like to say that this is just an ideal state. In the actual environment, there is often confrontation and wrangling. For example, if the operation wants to organize an event, it puts forward the demand for the product to design an event page; the business has negotiated traffic access and requires the product to provide an access solution; the market wants to do publicity and requires the product to explain the product features; R&D must be implemented and requires the product to clarify specific requirements, etc. ... The product manager's response is that he has no idea where to start, or the solutions given are always unsatisfactory to all parties, or the parties simply don't understand what you are saying, which leads to confrontation and wrangling among the parties in the end, and vice versa. Then, to solve the problem, we have to understand and analyze the cause of the problem.

Understanding the essence behind the phenomenon involves human nature, knowledge, experience, and skills.

About Humanity

Everything is changing endlessly, but they are all governed by the law of personal interests. This is rarely mentioned, but it often dominates personal behavior in actual work. Whether it is product, operation, market, or R&D, they all start from the subjective interests. Therefore, all parties work to complete the department's KPI as the goal and purpose, lacking the understanding of the overall goal of the project. In this state, the completion of work tasks is naturally directional, which reduces the efficiency of collaboration and there is no mutual understanding, mutual assistance and tolerance.

The solution is:

First of all, management personnel should not blindly set KPIs for each department, but should pay attention to the importance of the overall situation. The most important thing for the person in charge of the project is to focus on the overall situation of the project, consider the relationship and rhythm between products and R&D, operations, marketing, etc., and play a coordinating role.

Secondly, all participating departments of the project are encouraged to share work progress with related collaborative departments on a regular basis so that everyone can understand the dynamics and status of each party's work.

***, in addition to spare time outside of work, you should also pay attention to the interaction between departments. You can organize some entertainment activities, disperse the personnel from each department, and regroup them to play some small games to complete the task together, so as to enhance feelings and cultivate cooperation tacit understanding.

About knowledge

Everyone's knowledge reserve has certain limitations, and there are often certain blind spots. It is impossible to be comprehensive at work. Operations, marketing, R&D, etc. lack product knowledge, and vice versa. In this case, the coordination of work tasks will lack a good opportunity for cooperation, and a contradiction will appear: the language is not communicated, the two sides are not on the same channel, and the two sides cannot understand each other's semantics.

The solution is:

First of all, it is recommended that product managers ask operations, marketing, R&D and other related personnel to join in the initial discussion of the project. The purpose is to let everyone understand the project, know the positioning of the product, and understand and explain each other's views from the perspective of the project, the user, and the business interests, so as to find resonance and semantic understanding among all parties.

Secondly, we encourage everyone to read some books or learn through cross-learning. For example, students in operations can read some product-related books and articles, and students in product can read some basic technology books, etc., to develop the habit of cross-learning.

About Experience

The experience gained from job practice affects a person's perception and understanding of things. A common situation is that in the collaborative process, both parties hold their own opinions, each talking about what they think is important, ignoring the other party's contribution and work, thus generating confrontation and misunderstanding.

The solution is:

First, try to see if there is a possibility of rotation (this is difficult to do when the project is urgent) to provide cross-departmental internship opportunities for some students in the department.

Secondly, departments should try to let students with similar experience to connect projects. For example, operations students with product experience will communicate more smoothly with the product department, and vice versa.

About skills

Whether you can master the ways and methods of doing things and apply them skillfully determines your ability to solve problems in various situations.

The solution is:

First, speak the language of the industry. For example, when describing the product page with the developer, try to make it clear from a technical perspective which parts are implemented in the background, which parts are to be implemented on the user side, what format the interface protocol is, etc.

Secondly, internal training can be organized regularly for students with strong abilities and high work efficiency to share their experiences internally.

Conclusion: humanity + knowledge + experience + skills = ability.

Additional points and extensions:

If it is a matter of coordination between departments, it is best to form a project team, unify KPI goals, let team members give results quickly, reward them for completing the project in advance, and the project leader acts as a coach. The project time is controlled within 1 month, and the team members are disbanded after completion, and then regrouped in a new project. The project will improve the intimacy between team members, KPI will unify their thoughts, reward and motivate them to use their brains to find solutions, and limit the time to require them to find the best solution. The project leader can act as a coach to understand their work ability. by Zeng Jun

Unifying KPI goals in the form of a project team is based on the premise that the project leader can accurately grasp the relationship and rhythm of various matters. In practice, most people do not do this well, and there is a drawback, that is, the radical products caused by KPI pressure are often forced to move forward madly under KPI before they have thought it through. I have tried this method before, but later found that there is a basic point for tacit cooperation at work, which is often the private friendship or like-mindedness of several people, which leads to mutual assistance at work, improving efficiency and problem-solving ability. In addition, there is a phenomenon that the negativity caused by office politics also hinders collaboration and the implementation of unified KPI goals. by Li Yong

Therefore, the project leader needs to supervise the project. First, it is a matter of direction. Second, it is necessary to find people who can really do the work.

When talking about the direction, the project leader needs to focus on the overall situation. The overall situation here refers not only to understanding the system of the internal team organization and mastering the overall situation of the product, but also to knowing the overall situation of the market and the status of the industry chain. Among them, the key lies in knowing and mastering the relationship and rhythm in the middle. There is also a common sense paradox here that must be mentioned. In actual work, the direction is often set by the boss, and most product managers are responsible for execution. If they manage upward, product managers need to have knowledge, experience, and accumulated skills. Finding people who really do things requires project leaders to have the ability to recognize people, use people, manage people, and cultivate people. This requires time to settle. These two aspects are big items. It is easy to say but not easy to do. by Li Yong

The same solution will have different effects in different teams, and the main thing is that the leadership should not be confused. In order to achieve the KPI method, problems will arise, and someone must be in control.