Microsoft Teams: Working Norms
We're harnessing the power of doing less to achieve more product success
By aligning on OKRs, building better relationships, and fearlessly prioritizing, the process that helped to empower Content Design is on its way to improve the way the entire Teams org works.
Where we started – a simple hypothesis
Creating shared expectations and agreements about how we work together as a team will help create a positive and productive team culture where everyone feels respected, valued, and supported. And also, we ship amazing products
Focus on the design cycle
The strategy includes
•Early involvement in planning
•Embedding content designers in feature teams
•Fearless prioritization, capacity, and ratio tracking
•Saying “no” to ensure we put the most important work first
Early involvement in planning
- Creates awareness of OKRs & resources
- Creates room for strategic design
- Aligns team on goals, risks, & assumptions
Embedded Content Designers
- CDs are product owners
- Content-led design
- CDs own their design decisions
Prioritization strategy
- Priority criteria
- Ratios & project size
- Capacity & allocation
Capacity & ratio tracking
Proactive number game. Focus is not about individual CDs, but on the total amount of prioritized work and how many designers it will take.
Rollout and socialization
Real product change needs culture change.
Early socialization with Teams leadership and product partners.
Clear milestones and success metrics.
Achievable goals and promotions of wins across disciplines.
Feedback, iteration, and optimization
Where we're headed
Trust and partnership development across orgs and disciplines
Org-level initiative to integrate core working norms principles
Quality initiatives to align on craft and launch criteria
Integrated toolset to track priorities, initiatives and capacity
