Upskilling On Cross-Functional Teams

The strength of cross-functional teams lies in their diversity of skills and perspectives. However, this same characteristic presents a unique challenge: functional isolation. With typically just one person representing each speciality, if someone lacks proficiency in a critical area, the product suffers. Worse, if the team is unaware of a skill gap, they cannot address it.

Enabling Teams can help by defining what good looks like for each role and putting in place training courses to upskill people. Additionally, through "management by walking around," they can observe teams in action and identify gaps that may not be apparent.

Conferences are also a great way to bring in external insights and ideas and grow the internal knowledge base - I know some good ones taking place soon :). But to build experience, we need reflection and rotation - and that is before we get started on junior staff who are not yet self-sufficient to work on a cross-functional team.

I go into all of these and more in my article this week.

This Week’s Updates

Enabling the Team

Upskilling On Cross-Functional Teams by Rory Madden
The investment in comprehensive upskilling pays dividends through increased team capability and resilience, higher quality outputs and innovation, improved employee satisfaction and retention, greater organisational adaptability, and sustainable competitive advantage.

Your Manager Is Not Your Best Friend by Stay SaaSy
Managers who blur the line between leadership and friendship risk losing objectivity and accountability. Healthy management means providing support and empathy while maintaining professional boundaries that enable growth and trust.

Product Direction

Stop Waiting For Permission: How To Be Strategic At Any Level by Martin Eriksson
Strategic thinking isn’t limited to senior roles, since it starts with owning outcomes and connecting daily work to broader goals. Building context, spotting patterns, and influencing direction from any seat creates real product impact.

The PM Superpower: Learning to (Read) Code by Abby Phillips
Great product managers read to spot weak signals, challenge assumptions, and connect patterns across disciplines. Developing a reading habit sharpens judgment, improves decision-making, and strengthens strategic intuition over time.

Continuous Research

Mixed-Methods Research: Combining Qualitative And Quantitative Data by Rachel Banawa
Blending qualitative and quantitative methods creates a more complete understanding of user behaviour. The strength lies in combining the “why” from interviews with the “what” from analytics to produce richer, actionable insights.

How To Collect And Clean Usability-Testing Data by Syed Balkhi
Reliable usability insights depend on clean, structured data. Standardising how notes, observations, and metrics are captured prevents bias, improves analysis quality, and ensures findings accurately reflect user behaviour.

Continuous Design

The Purpose Of Prototypes by Marty Cagan
Prototypes aren’t meant to sell ideas but to learn fast and reduce risk. Their value lies in validating assumptions early, aligning teams around user experience, and ensuring solutions solve the right problem before building.

The Quiet Skills We’re Losing In Design Leadership by Allan Cardozo
Amid the rise of tools and automation, design leadership risks losing the subtle human skills that drive real impact, such as listening, mentoring, and creating psychological safety. Reinvesting in these quiet skills sustains trust and creativity across teams.

Continuous Development

No, AI Is Not Making Engineers 10x As Productive by Colton Voege
AI tools can make even experienced engineers feel inadequate as productivity gaps widen. The real opportunity lies in embracing these tools to amplify judgment, creativity, and collaboration (not in competing with automation).

Building Stronger Engineering Teams With Aligned Autonomy by Eira May
The best engineering teams balance freedom with shared purpose. Aligned autonomy gives developers space to make decisions while ensuring their work contributes to collective goals, creating both accountability and innovation.

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Introducing The First UXDX USA 2026 Partner

Strella joins to redefine how we capture human insights

We’re thrilled to announce Strella as the first official partner for UXDX USA 2026. Strella is pioneering a new way to conduct research by combining AI-moderated interviews with real-time synthesis to deliver human insights at scale. It’s a breakthrough that’s transforming how teams understand users, test ideas, and make faster, evidence-based decisions.

At UXDX, we believe innovation doesn’t come from working harder, but it comes from listening better. That’s why we’re so excited to have Strella join us in New York this May. Together, we’ll explore how AI can help researchers, designers, and product teams move beyond static insights to continuous learning and keep the human voice at the heart of every product decision.

Get your ticket for UXDX USA 2026 now to meet Strella at their booth!

FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS 

Check out more upcoming community events 

Video Of The Week
From Vendor To Partner:
Getting The Most Out Of Your Agency Relationship

Many collaborations between internal teams and external partners struggle to deliver lasting value. In this session from UXDX USA 2025, Tanesha Smith-Wattley (Head of Product & Delivery, Very Good Ventures) reveals how to move beyond transactional vendor dynamics and create partnerships rooted in shared purpose, accountability, and trust.

She explains how aligning leadership early, focusing on measurable outcomes over outputs, and establishing clear decision paths can transform the way teams work together. Watch now to learn how to build agency relationships that strengthen collaboration, reduce friction, and deliver results long after the contract ends:

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question: Would you consider adopting software teaming/mob programming in your organisation?

Last week’s poll asked whether teams would consider adopting software teaming or mob programming, and the results show both curiosity and constraint. While 21% said they’d like to try it, nearly half (44%) said their organisations wouldn’t allow it. Another 32% said they’re not personally in favour, and one respondent noted that training, security, and technical complexity often make true cross-functional development difficult.

These responses highlight an ongoing tension in modern product development: the desire to collaborate more deeply versus the systems that make it hard to do so. Many teams see the value in shared problem-solving, but existing structures, permissions, and risk models often get in the way.

True collaboration takes more than tools or techniques, as it takes trust, transparency, and an environment that allows experimentation without fear. Until that’s in place, practices like mob programming will remain more aspiration than reality for most teams.