Cross-Team and Cross-Functional Collaborations
Learn how to answer questions about collaborations effectively.
We'll cover the following...
- Communication with stakeholders
- Managing conflicting priorities
- Managing conflicts with XFN partners
- Trade-offs and dependency management
- Typical questions
- Tell me about a time your project was delayed because of a dependency on another team. How did you deal with it?
- How and when did you share your roadmap with downstream dependencies?
- How did you learn about the roadmap of teams with upstream dependencies?
- What is the most difficult conflict you or your team had with a cross-functional team?
- What did you do when a cross-functional partner (a person) was not delivering results?
- Give an example of when you influenced XFN partners to change their roadmap
Engineering teams require a high degree of collaboration to deliver most projects. The level of collaboration needed in a team can differ, but no team works in isolation. Engineering Managers are the face of their team. They are usually the owners of most of the collaborations of their team.
Collaborations can be with other engineering teams, product teams, or design teams. They can be your customers (they receive a product or service from you) or your team can be their customers (you receive their product or service). They can also be your partners, working together toward shared goals. This communication is called cross-functional or XFN collaboration.
While working with other partners, there will be upward or downward dependencies. Upward dependencies are those on which your team is dependent, and downward dependencies are those where your partners are dependent on your team. Managing complex XFN collaborations is a skill that all managers must possess.
During the interview process, you are expected to demonstrate that you can handle and lead complex collaborations.
The interviewer will focus on one or a few of the areas mentioned below.
Communication with stakeholders
As a manager, you should communicate effectively with all stakeholders. The format of your communication is also important. For major partners and stakeholders, you should conduct meetings on a regular cadence. With some partners, you may need to wait on a weekly basis, and with some partners, every quarter or every half is fine too. You should know how to set up these communication channels effectively.
Asynchronous communication can be used to share status updates, make announcements, or send emails via company-owned communication channels. These channels can be email, Facebook Workplace, Slack, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, or any other technology used in your company.
Another important aspect of communication is sharing dependencies with the right people at the right time. Whenever plans change that might affect upstream or downstream dependencies, it is important to let the other teams know as soon as possible.
Suppose you estimated a project would be completed in the first quarter, but it became ...