The Symbiotic Relationship Between Product Teams and Executive Leadership

Empowered product teams require clear guidance and vision from executive leadership to avoid paralysis. The relationship between the two should involve the sharing of insights, data, and anecdotes from product teams to inform senior leadership. While tactical decisions are empowered to be made by product teams, executive leadership should overlay this with organizational strategy and ensure alignment with organizational goals. Product decisions should ultimately be made by the teams closest to the customer, but a governance structure can outline when decisions need to be escalated to the executive level based on specific criteria such as impact to customers, revenue, or cost.