Mind the Gap - how to bridge between Product and R&D

You are planning the next quarter. On one side, the Product managers have a vision and some great ideas on what to do next. On the other side, the R&D leaders are required to create a feasible plan. If you don't handle this gap well, the negotiations will become a tag of war, and the planning will not be as effective as it could have been.

The problem

Have you ever sat down in a meeting between Product and R&D, in which the PM tries to explain their vision, which items are next in line, and why they are highly prioritized, while R&D shoot out explanations why these items are not feasible, they can't be done, they shouldn't be done? I bet you have witnessed this at least once. Why does it happen? and more importantly, how can you make sure it doesn't happen next time?

The gap

It happens, since the process is not defined well enough, and Product and R&D are not aligned in where we are in the planning cycle. While Product are delighted to show R&D their priorities and start to work with them on the content, R&D think the content is already set (without consulting with them) and are now in charge of explaining why this is not feasible.

This difference, between where Product think we are in the cycle, and where R&D think we are in the cycle, can create a lot of friction and frustration. So how do you bridge this gap?

The bridge

Our solution was to create a well defined mapping of the pre-planning cycle. We wanted to make sure everyone is aligned on where we are in the proces at each stage, so that unneeded tension doesn't rise.

Instead of having a few weeks of "Pre planning" towards the PI planning event, we delibrately defined what happens during these weeks, and what are the expectations from each stage.

For example, one of the first stages was a "Idea kickoff meeting", where the PM explains the idea to their counterparts, focusing on why this is important, and together with the technical experts, define a technical discovery for the idea. R&D are not required at this time to explain why this can't be done, why it would take too much time or any other excuse. They are there to help find a way this idea can become a reality. We explicitly used the term "idea" and not "epic" or "feature" to suggest that this is not yet a backlog item. Instead, this is a topic on which we want to work together and refine it until it does become a backlog item.

Conclusion

Once we were able to align everyone on the process and what each one is expected to do at each phase, we were able to remove tension and create an environment of mutual trust and partnership. The impact of this was a much better plan and happier stakeholders.