Collaboration

Let’s collab

What does collaboration mean to me?

In a simple sense, collaboration means all interested parties/stakeholders are Invested and Engaged in solving the same problem and the subsequent decision making process.

It requires 3 key pillars —

Transparency, Openness & Communication

You need to be transparent with your road map, your ideas, the problem you’re trying to solve. It requires an open mind to hear and receive ideas and feedback — good or bad. It requires communication to carry forward discussions in the event of a stalemate, prioritize your options and work through the issues to achieve your objectives.

The above pillars can be achieved through —

1. Bringing the stakeholders along earlier on in the journey, rather than later. This helps build the momentum for a cross-functional team play and the stakeholders aren’t playing catch up during the later stages of product built. Diverse ideas are presented, analyzed and prioritized from the beginning, avoiding any probability of critical risks and edge-cases coming through at a later end stage. Stakeholders are also given enough opportunities and time to think through how can they contribute towards this initiative, provide domain knowledge or devise their plan of action in cases where their expertise comes in at a later stage of the project.
2. Soliciting constant continuous feedback from stakeholders to make them feel a part of the process and to get them invested in the success of the project/initiative. Having a regular cadence for team huddles/meetings/update sessions helps you to present your WIP (work in progress) which in turn allows stakeholders to provide their feedback as the product is being built. This continuous feedback and iteration mechanism creates a strong product culture in the organization.
3. Create alignment on the vision/problem statement/ what are we trying to solve for. Communicating time and again what you’re trying to solve for — that one goal, that one north star metric that you want to achieve/tweak — helps to keep everyone on the same page and in the same direction. It helps communication easier, drawing out the best ideas from the crowd without compromising on the quality of relevant discussions.

How do you collaborate within your organizations?