How Cross-Functional Teams Work

Cross-functional teams are tasked with achieving outcomes rather than outputs. This means that they can streamline the traditional product delivery lifecycle to remove the unnecessary blocking handoffs.

But a streamlined process isn't enough. Success is determined by quick iterations and getting early feedback from customers. This means that the process needs to be optimised for delivery speed. Work in Progress (WIP) limits ensure backlogs stay small and lead time is short.

But WIP limits mean that some functions will be idle - design cannot take on any more work if the development backlog is full. This means that we need to shift from a team of functions to a cross-functional team. People need to work where the need is greatest.

But designers don't have development skills! The shift to cross-functional work also requires a change in work practices. We need to blur the boundaries between traditional functional roles.

Software Teaming is a practice that helps teams achieve all of the above. I go into more detail about how cross-functional teams actually work in this week’s article.

This Week’s Updates

Enabling the Team

How Cross-functional Teams Work by Rory Madden
For organisations struggling with slow delivery, quality issues, or misalignment between technical solutions and customer needs, cross-functional teams offer a proven alternative.

How AI PMs And AI Engineers Collaborate On Evals by Aman Khan
AI product management requires closer alignment with engineering than traditional PM roles. Effective collaboration depends on shared language, clarity about trade-offs, and joint ownership of experimentation and outcomes.

Product Direction

AI And Product Management: Becoming More Evidence-Guided by Itamar Gila
AI is not about helping PMs create more artefacts, but about helping them drive the important processes of research and discovery.

Time Allocation ≠ Capacity Allocation by John Cutler
The concept of capacity allocation is fraught with misunderstanding, and companies waste a lot of money (and do a lot of damage) by mistaking time allocation for capacity allocation.

Continuous Research

Behind The Scenes: Building The Product Talk Interview Coach by Teresa Torres
Interviewing customers is a skill that improves with feedback, not repetition. Using a structured coaching approach helps teams refine questioning techniques, uncover deeper insights, and build confidence in their discovery conversations.

The Role Of UX Research In Developing Effective User Retention Strategies For Saas Products by Adedolapoblessing
UX research plays a crucial role in uncovering the motivations and friction points that drive retention. By connecting behavioural insights to lifecycle metrics, teams can design experiences that keep users engaged over time.

Continuous Design

AI Won’t Kill UX — We Will by Kym Primrose
The real threat to UX isn’t AI itself but designers failing to adapt their roles and methods. By clinging to old practices instead of embracing new ways of working, the field risks making itself obsolete.

Sketching With AI: Why Physical Thinking Still Matters In The Age Of Generated Everything by Christina Wodtke
AI tools can accelerate idea generation, but they risk disconnecting designers from the tactile process of exploration. Maintaining physical sketching and embodied thinking keeps creativity grounded and human in an increasingly automated workflow.

Continuous Development

Forward Deployed Engineers by Marty Cagan
Forward-deployed engineers embed directly with customers to solve problems in real time, bridging the gap between development and discovery. This model accelerates learning, deepens empathy, and ensures teams build what users truly need.

Engineering Lead Failure Modes by Lior Neu-Ner
Common tech lead pitfalls include hoarding decisions, avoiding conflict, or focusing too much on coding over leadership. Recognising these failure modes helps leads balance technical depth with communication, mentorship, and team alignment.

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Global Product Community Week 2025

Real Conversations, Shared Challenges,
And A Reminder Of Why We Build

From New York to Dublin, Istanbul to Columbus, and everywhere in between, last week’s Global Product Community Week brought hundreds of product, UX, research and engineering professionals together. Not there to chase hype, but to ask better questions. Across ten cities, the conversations were refreshingly real: what happens when AI meets human empathy, how constraints create focus, and why alignment is still the hardest part of cross-functional work.

In Dublin, Pooja Dey (Sage) reminded us that “constraints create focus. Focus drives momentum. Momentum delivers impact.” Which is a sentiment echoed by Richard Glynn (EY), who urged teams to “start with the human problem, not the technology.” Meanwhile in New York, Lorraine K. Lee reframed presence as “how others experience you in every interaction,” while Nick Gould tackled imposter voices head-on: “Presence begins when you quiet the noise in your head.” From Warsaw to Glasgow, speakers challenged the AI hype cycle, calling for balance between speed and substance, innovation and empathy.

The week wasn’t about big reveals; it was about accessible shared learning. Whether it was dissecting the downfall of algorithmic monoculture in Glasgow or debating what skills matter most in the AI era in DC, one message was clear: the future of product is cross-functional, human-centred, and deeply collaborative. Thank you to every speaker, ambassador, and attendee who made this week a global exchange of ideas worth remembering.

Great talks need great people. Make an impact in your local community and apply to speak at one of the future events in your city: Apply To Speak Here.

FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS 

Check out more upcoming community events 

Video Of The Week
A Framework For Seamless Collaboration
Between UX Researchers & Product Analysts

When research and analytics operate in isolation, even the best teams can solve the wrong problems. In this session from UXDX USA 2025, Archana J. Shah (Principal UX Researcher) and Subhasree Chatterjee (Data Analytics Manager) from LexisNexis share how they bridged the gap between UX and data to build stronger, more aligned product teams.

Discover how their framework transforms friction into clarity by defining success upfront, combining qualitative and quantitative insights, and aligning around shared goals. Watch now to learn how to connect research and analytics for better decisions, stronger collaboration, and measurable business impact:

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question: How are most of your product development teams organised?

Last week’s poll explored how most product development teams are organised, and the results reveal just how varied team structures remain across the industry. While 28% of respondents said they still work in primarily functional teams, 16% have moved toward cross-functional setups. Another 14% sit somewhere in between, using a mix of both models, while the largest group (33%) said it depends on the project or product.

This split highlights a key truth: there’s no one-size-fits-all model for team structure. Many organisations are still experimenting; adapting structures to context, maturity, and business priorities. What matters most isn’t whether a team is functional or cross-functional, but whether it has clarity of ownership, shared goals, and alignment around outcomes.

The trend we’re seeing is towards flexibility, building teams that can shift shape as the product evolves. Because ultimately, structure should serve strategy, not the other way around.