Working Cross-Functionally

Engineering work often involves working closely with people who are not engineers. Cross-functional teams, where contributors from several different departments or skillsets collaborate on a shared effort, have become the primary configuration for software development work. These teams are arranged to have the right expertise to complete meaningful and impactful work together.

Engineers may work on cross-functional teams with a wide range of members. Contributors might include those from other engineering disciplines or those from design, data, operations, analytics, product management, project management, or business backgrounds. Many others may be a part of your cross-functional teams, each with their own skillsets, priorities, and perspectives.

Companies take different approaches to cross-functional teams. They may set up a functionally aligned reporting structure with matrixed cross-functional teams or they might have cross-functional roles report...

Demonstrating cross-functional leadership

For cross-functional teams, project and product success is defined at the team level, not at the functional level. In other words, engineers cannot be successful without their cross-functional teams. Where software development is a team activity, we must take a whole-team view of performance and success. As engineering managers, we may tell our teams this with our words, but the best way to impart the idea is by demonstrating it with our own behavior.

If we tell our engineering teams that cross-functional partnerships are important but we consistently place engineering priorities over those of our partners and don’t make time for them, our engineers will see this and come to believe those partnerships are not actually that important. If we rely on lip service and good intentions rather than concrete actions and compromise, our engineering teams will do the same. Their relationships and product outcomes will suffer.

Leading great...

Understanding your partners

The first step to building strong cross-functional partnerships is to check your ego. We all know that engineers are awesome, but ask yourself, do you feel the same way about the partner teams you interact with every day? Do you know them? Do you genuinely respect and appreciate them for what they contribute to the team? Do you think of them as vital contributors or just people who are doing some tasks that you don’t really value? Your attitude and beliefs about cross-functional partners can’t help but leak into your words and actions to some degree. For this reason, the most successful collaborators will always be those that appreciate their partners for their unique experience, effort, and perspective. A welcoming attitude with a curiosity to deeply understand others is the best foundation for a good partnership. With this in mind, go about the work of getting to know your partners.

As you get up to speed on your cross-functional partners...

Aligning with partners

Functional teams typically have a whole range of simultaneous efforts, intentions, and goals. Taking proactive measures to align with cross-functional partners is how we avoid conflicts and, further, how we start to achieve a more productive partnership. We align with our partners by adopting a same-team attitude, uniting team visions, providing clarity on roles, and providing an aligned structure.

Adopting a same-team attitude

The way to create an aligned cross-functional team is to start acting like a single team. Give the whole team a sense that they are in this together and they have each other’s backs. That means that for everyone on the cross-functional team, their goals are your goals and their problems are your problems. Believe this and demonstrate it through your words and actions. Enthusiastically tackle the challenges of your cross-functional partners. Look for mutually beneficial solutions and approaches.

Make sure any competition...

Building strong relationships

Relationship building is core to working cross-functionally. Strong relationships in your cross-functional network help you get more done because you have trust, buy-in, and support from your partners. These things do not happen magically over time; they are the result of effort, attention, and investment in relationships.

Sometimes we may think relationships aren’t as important as being good at our functional jobs and conducting ourselves fairly. After all, we’re here to do work, not make friends, right? It is true that great work is the ultimate goal, but when we fail to invest in relationships, we miss opportunities to do our best work. This is because we are human and we cannot avoid our own social and psychological underpinnings. If we don’t take the time to connect and understand each other better, we don’t feel as comfortable or trusting, and we are less likely to take risks and share our true opinions. We make safer...

Difficult partnerships

From time to time, all engineering managers and their teams will find themselves faced with a difficult cross-functional partnership. Despite our best efforts and careful practices, not everyone will respond to us in the way we hope they will. Since we usually do not have the luxury of picking our cross-functional partners, it is an important skill to be able to overcome these situations and find ways to continue to do our best work. When you are faced with a difficult cross-functional partnership, follow these steps.

Make your manager aware

It’s a good practice to keep your manager broadly aware of everything you are working on and specifically of the challenges you are facing in your cross-functional teams. This is not to cast blame or ask for help, but instead to give them a warning that you see a dynamic happening that is not ideal and that you are working on it. This allows your manager to have insight into the efforts you are putting forth...

Summary

In this chapter, we learned how to forge productive cross-functional partnerships that enrich our work and help us grow as leaders. We learned how cross-functional relationships are essential to produce our best work since the end product is not only code but also the result of collaborative efforts. To do our best work in cross-functional teams, we must build relationships and establish trust with our peers:

• Lead by example in demonstrating to your engineering team how to engage with cross-functional partners.
• Assess cross-functional partners by gathering information to understand them and their needs.
• Invest time in cross-functional partners to improve cross-discipline workflows, anticipate cross-functional needs better, and build trust.
• Set up regular time in your calendar to make sure you are keeping up with your cross-functional partners.
• Align across functions by adopting a same-team attitude, uniting your functional visions, establishing clarity...

Further reading

• Cagan, Marty. INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. John Wiley & Sons, 2017. (https://www.wiley.com/en-us/INSPIRED%3A+How+to+Create+
Tech+Products+Customers+Love%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119387503)
• How To Lead When You Have No Authority (https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-lead-when-you-have-no-authority-9f22206356d4)
• Forming Stronger Bonds with People at Work (https://hbr.org/2017/10/forming-stronger-bonds-with-people-at-work)