Here’s Why You Should Hand Over Product Prioritization to Engineering Managers
In this series, we’ll explore how transferring prioritization responsibilities from product to engineering leaders can unlock enhanced team velocity. We’ll first delve into the main benefits of employing this change. Subsequent posts will discuss how to assess the suitability of this approach for your team and offer practical steps to get started.
The Goal
When I joined Zapier as an engineering manager (EM) on the Interfaces team in October 2022, I was focused on organizing the work in our Jira board and setting up automation to streamline the software development lifecycle. The team was small (two full-time engineers and one contractor), and I was tasked with setting up a process that would keep us nimble and focused on shipping speed.
At the time, Interfaces was in alpha, fresh out of ZapConnect, where the product was announced. We only had a dozen free users, and we were focused on building the minimum viable product (MVP).
I asked Luke Thomas, the team’s lead product manager (PM), if he’d let me pilot a process I had used with previous teams I managed. The process was different from how other teams at Zapier moved. As an EM, I would own the prioritization work. Rather than Luke maintaining the Jira board, I would decide which tasks took precedence.
While Luke would still provide the broader direction, I would sequence the tasks in a way that optimized the team’s efficiency. This approach would immediately shift certain decisions, such as the amount of tech debt to address each week and even the feature build sequence, from a product-centric responsibility to one fulfilled by engineering.
Luckily, Luke was game for trying. It was a win-win. “I was stoked when Ben volunteered to own Jira and related processes,” he recalls. “Managing Jira was already a source of organizational heartburn for me. I wanted to spend most of my time talking to customers and determining the most important projects.”
0 Comments