10 approaches for successfully managing geographically distributed, cross functional product teams

In the post-pandemic era, hybrid and remote work have become an integral part of modern business practices, and this is also true in software development. Whilst this shift brings advantages like the ability to tap into a global talent pool, it also introduces unique challenges that require thoughtful adjustments to team management strategies.

In my most recent role, I had the privilege of leading a cross-functional product team spanning five countries across three continents and consisting of product managers, systems architects, marketing manager and UX specialist.

Successful management of any product team requires approaches which facilitate clear and consistent communication, an environment for growth and development, and most importantly  an environment which provides psychological safely, Achieving these goals is challenging, but it is particularly more complex when your team is both functionally diverse and geographically dispersed.

Here are 10 approaches that have proved successful in my experience:

1. A ‘live’ product management playbook

As we all know, product management is far more than just being the "voice of the customer." It often involves participating in and supporting multiple aspects of product development, promotion and sales. In this context, a live product management playbook became an essential tool for us. This living document answered all questions on how the team should do various tasks and described all processes and platforms  - the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) processes, the enhancement process, the custom development process, the field team training process, customer presentation guidelines, etc.

In a distributed team, where members cannot easily learn from one another through casual interactions in the office, such a playbook ensured consistency and efficiency. Platforms such as Slack, Confluence, etc are helpful in creating a virtual office environment, but a comprehensive, accessible document allows team members to find all necessary information to ensure that processes and guidelines are followed, consistency is maintained and they can carry out their job in an effective and efficient manner.

As the playbook is a live document, it is updated every time a process, platform or guideline is updated. In addition, at the end of each release the document is reviewed with other teams such as R&D to capture the learnings for the past project and make any adjustments necessary.

2. Building connections with virtual coffee meetings

Building personal connections in geographically dispersed teams can be difficult. To foster team cohesion, we scheduled weekly virtual coffee meetings. These were conducted as video calls and there was just one rule - no work talk. This gave team members a chance to bond, building trust and camaraderie that ultimately improved collaboration.

3. Collective idea generation through ‘open agenda’ sessions

Often times, great ideas come through informal discussions. These are few and far between when the teams are geographically separated. Hence, by introducing a regular, fortnightly open-agenda session the team could have more general discussions on product or technology.  These discussions, with pre-shared or impromptu topics, encouraged knowledge sharing and collective growth of the team. To keep these sessions productive, we time-boxed them using light-hearted methods adopted from events like the Oscars where the music signals the end of a speech. The sessions produced some interesting outputs in terms of product enhancements and roadmap items.  

4. Staying aligned with daily virtual stand-ups

With teams based in different time zones it is vital to ensure that all members are aligned. Daily stand-up meetings allow team members to share updates, discuss obstacles and disseminate any important information.

One of the challenges that I observed in the early days was that the participants disengaged after sharing their updates, often multitasking or attending other calls. This defeated the purpose of the sessions. To prevent this, we tried strategies such as rotating the order of speakers and using video calls (when possible). We also controlled the time allocated to each member in order to ensure that all members have an equal chance.

5. Tracking individual progress with One-on-One Meetings (1:1s)

While daily stand-ups are effective in ensuring that the team is making progress, individual performance can be harder to gauge in these meetings. Regular one-on-one meetings are essential for tracking personal progress, setting expectations, providing feedback and discussing any other issues. We adopted a simple approach: each week, the individual team members and I would list the tasks to be addressed n the coming week. The following week we would categorize them based on progress—completed, in progress,  delayed. We would also add any unexpected tasks that arised during the week as they may be the cause of delays to other tasks.

If  tasks remained delayed for several weeks without a valid reason, it signaled a need for further discussion or intervention.

6. Keeping the field updated with regular product calls

Field teams, such as presales and support promote and defend the product's capabilities. Therefore, it is important that they get regular product updates to remain effective. We instituted monthly product briefings, where different members of the product team presented on specific product aspects or technology developments. This not only supported continuous learning but also gave product team members an opportunity to enhance their presentation and communication skills.

7. Ensuring continuous learning using LMS (Learning Management System)

Even though product team members often specialize in specific product areas, it is crucial that everyone has a general understanding of the entire product and can get access to any information pertaining to the product in the most efficient manner. Hence, a well-structured repository of all product collateral such as user guides, internal and external presentations and other product and technology related collateral is necessary. We implemented a Learning Management System (LMS) to centralize this knowledge base. In addition we introduced tailored learning pathways based on this collateral to encourage continuous learning.

To enhance engagement with the learning platform, we implemented assessment programs within the LMS, rewarding team members who successfully completed different sets of assessment. This approach ensured that team members actively engaged with the learning material, contributing to increased impact.

8. Strengthening soft skills

In addition to product training, it is important to invest in the team’s professional growth by offering opportunities to enhance soft skills and learn about emerging technologies, such as Generative AI. We supported this by providing vouchers for platforms such as Coursera for successful completion of internal training.

9. Embracing the amorphous nature of teams

In today’s fast-moving world, employees switch jobs more frequently. When a team member leaves, it is not always possible to replace them with an exactly similar profile. Hence the team structure evolves with time.  When a team member leaves, their replacement may bring different skills. As an example, during one such transition we found a senior replacement who would be best suited to an existing occupied role. Hence, following discussions with the person holding the role we decided that the existing holder of the role will make an internal shift and the new person would take over that role. This flexible approach helps teams adapt and thrive in dynamic environments.

10. Leveraging technology for increased effectiveness

There is now an extensive portfolio of platforms to improve team efficiency and encourage virtual collaborations. AI offers even more opportunities to collaborate effectively with the ability to synthesize information from multiple sources as well as language translation. Platforms like Synthesia can now translate any presentation from one language to another, making working across different countries and cultures even more effective.