Cross… functional… collaboration.
It doesn’t sound like the most exciting part of a digital product launch. But it’s perhaps one of the most important!
Why?
Because the opposite of cross-functional collaboration, i.e., working in ‘silos’, can have a substantial and far-reaching impact on a business and its brand. In fact, one study by Airtable showed that companies experience a 24% drop in productivity due to silos.
In the digital product world, these ‘silos’ are unfortunately all too common. They can happen ‘horizontally, between departments, and they can happen ‘hierarchically’, between different managerial levels. They can also be the result of working from different geographic locations, having misaligned goals and objectives, or arising from legacy systems and processes that reinforce team divisions.
And these silos don’t just hit productivity. The same report from Airtable demonstrated how decision makers and leaders are impacted by silos in that they lose an average of 2.4 hours a day looking for data and information to do their work. It goes even further - IDC have shown that companies lose 20-30% in revenue due to silos and inefficiencies.
The good news is that silos are a known roadblock in organisations – so much so that reducing silos is a top priority for eight in 10 decision-makers (Airtable). And the opposite of a siloed company, i.e., leveraging cross-functional teams, is proving out its success, with 83% of digitally maturing companies now reporting using this organisational structure (Deloitte).
The benefits of cross-functional collaboration
So what are the benefits of cross-functional collaboration? Why would global Enterprise brands want to take the time to move to this way of working?
Well, cross-functional team working can have a range of benefits for your brand, especially when it comes to the design and development of digital products. These benefits include:
Increased agility and flexibility in the design and development process itself.
Streamlined processes, with faster decision-making and reduced handoff times.
Improved team and departmental alignment, due to a ‘shared vision’.
Enhanced knowledge sharing and innovation.
Better overall customer experience.
The stakeholders involved in cross-functional collaboration
Unlike the ‘Functional’ team approach, where distinct teams all work separately, the ‘Cross-Functional’ one brings individuals together from different teams, thereby blending skill sets and enhancing knowledge sharing.
But what does this look like in real life?
With the team structure construct still in your head, imagine individuals from the following departments being a part of that Cross-Functional team:
Product Management
To define the product vision, strategy and roadmap. Within the cross-functional team, they facilitate communication and alignment, ensuring the product meets both business objectives and user needs.
Business Analysis
To analyse market trends, competitor activities and user data that then inform product decisions and strategies.
Leadership
To provide strategic guidance and oversight, playing a key role in setting priorities, allocating resources, unblocking obstacles and generally championing the team across the rest of the organisation.
Design
To create the UI and UX of the product. They collaborate closely with other stakeholders to translate user requirements into appealing designs. Also contributing to prototyping, wireframing and usability testing.
Development
Responsible for building the product, working closely with designers and product managers. They also ensure the scalability, performance and security of the product.
QA
Responsible for the reliability, functionality and performance of the digital product. Conduct testing and report bugs/issues; maintain quality and stability of the product throughout its development lifecycle.
Marketing
Responsible for promoting the product and driving user acquisition, engagement and retention. They understand the target audience, positioning and messaging and use these elements to generate awareness and demand for the product.
Sales and Customer Success
To gather feedback from users and address their questions and issues. Collaborate to prioritise fixes and feature enhancements. Also provide valuable insights into user behaviours and pain points.
You’ll have noticed that we mention the ‘user’ quite a few times in the above! But we know there’s a line to tread between user requirements and organisational objectives. For more on how to balance user needs with business goals in digital product design, you’ll want to head here. It’s also worth checking out UserVoice for how they have blended sales, marketing and customer success teams to extract the deepest possible knowledge of the customer.
Common challenges of cross-functional collaboration
The challenges of cross-functional collaboration are often what have created silos in the first place, so it’s important to be on the lookout for these in order to deal with them quickly and effectively. From working with a number of global Enterprise brands, here are the ones we see most commonly both before and during cross-functional collaboration:
Communication breakdowns
These often arise due to different terminology being used, or team members coming from different backgrounds. And it’s not just a geographical thing – even your sales and marketing teams might refer to something in completely different ways. Take the broad business concept of ROI (Return on Investment) as an example. To a Sales team, this can mean actual hard sales. Whereas to a Customer Success team, this could translate into end user satisfaction and NPS scores.
Conflicting priorities and goals
With team members coming from different departments, they may often have different objectives and agendas. This is natural as each department or team will have set their own quarterly and annual goals, and these still need to be respected.
Resource constraints
Bringing people into a cross-functional team from different areas can lead to conflict when it comes to competing demands on their time. This is often because cross-functional initiatives are seen as ‘side of desk’ projects, to be taken on alongside standard day-to-day work. Unfortunately, the results of this is that it can slow down progress and compromise outcomes.
Organisational barriers
Even if your cross-functional team is working well together, you may still be impacted by wider organisational silos and barriers. Until the organisation embraces this style of working more broadly, then these barriers will continue to lead to missed opportunities or redundant work.
Resistance to change
Cross-functional team working can represent a big shift in how teams are used to working, especially within large Enterprise organisations. Managing this as a full ‘change management’ initiative needs to be thought through and planned carefully.
Solutions for overcoming silo challenges
As with breaking down the silos in the first place, avoiding them creeping back in to cross-functional teams comes down to five key approaches. Get these right from the outset, and you’ll have much greater success at overcoming resource constraints and organisational barriers, as well as dealing with communication breakdowns, conflicting goals and any resistance to change you might encounter.
Define shared goals and objectives upfront
Promote open and regular communications
Foster a culture of feedback, collaboration and accountability
Break down organisational barriers and silos
Provide adequate resources and support
It’s important to note here that many of these fall to the senior executives and managers within a department or team, so don’t expect the cross-functional team to just deal with these issues themselves. The old adage of ‘leading by example’ rings true here in order to set the correct tone for the rest of the team to follow and to ensure that team has everything they need to avoid obstacles and roadblocks.
A final note on silo problems and cross-functional challenges – some degree of workplace conflict is natural. It’s a phenomenon that the research company Myers-Briggs have shown will come up despite all your best efforts. And here’s the thing – in some instances, it can help the product process by encouraging innovation and bringing teams closer together as they work through any issues. The important thing to remember, however, is that it can go too far, such that it negatively impacts the design and development process. The key here as a digital leader is to spot those signs and catch it early.
Tools to help with cross-functional collaboration
We just covered five main ways in which to overcome silos. A sixth approach that is tried-and-tested for both breaking down silos and helping with cross-functional collaboration is to use the right tools. This is especially true if you’re running the team remotely from different locations and geographies.
Take UserVoice, as mentioned earlier. Their cross-functional teams use tools such as Google Workspace, Miro and Figma to help with the digital product process.
Similarly, there are some amazing tools now available to assist with overall project management. Tools like Asana, Monday.com and Trello are great for tracking project status, monitoring goals and KPIs, and managing resources.
Then there are communications tools. The best of breed here have got to be Slack or Microsoft Teams.
And for design collaboration, Figma, Miro, Sketch and InVision are all ones that Enterprise brands use successfully now.
A word of caution! Before getting into any of these tools, make sure to map out your goals, design your team and outline your ways of working first. The tools are just a support aid; the strategic planning is best done before diving into the tech! A great way to get started with this planning is by using templates and resources.
If you’re looking to prioritise specific initiatives in your digital department for the rest of 2024, then make breaking down team silos one of them!
Not only do silos inhibit innovation and delay product launches, but they also lead to a disjointed customer experience that can hinder overall business growth. Don’t fret though, the solution is staring us in the face – cross-functional collaboration!
Cross-functional collaboration offers numerous benefits in terms of improved speed, efficiencies and end product quality. What’s more, by involving key stakeholders in cross-functional teams, organisations can leverage diverse expertise and perspectives to drive innovation and faster time-to-market.
If you need help getting started with cross-functional team working, then get in touch.
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