1 of 19

Forming and Maintaining Relationships for Product Management Teams

Kumba Alafi

Senior Product Manager at SquareTrade

March 16, 2023

2 of 19

Agenda

  • Intro
  • My observations at SquareTrade
  • Ask colleagues (i.e. Lean Coffee) for ideas
  • Team building benefits
  • Interactive poll for today’s participants
  • Stakeholder relationships
  • Closing and Resources

3 of 19

A little about me

  • Born in Goa, India and moved to the US when I was 5.
  • Grew up in the Columbus area and graduated from OSU.
  • Moved to the Cleveland area almost 20 years ago.
  • Earned MBA from Columbia Southern University in ‘17.
  • Worked for 3 other companies before SquareTrade.
  • Enjoy golf, traveling, DIY projects, and volunteering.

4 of 19

“Relationships Are Everything”

  • My friend Isaac Perkins (pictured here) lived by this motto.
  • He was diagnosed with a very rare form of brain cancer at 24 and passed away just shy of 26.
  • He had a knack for being able to talk to anyone and make them feel good.
  • He showed his friends/family how important relationships are.

Picture taken courtside at a Cavs game during LeBron’s rookie year

5 of 19

Relationships in our new(er) “remote” age

  • SquareTrade is the first fully remote company that I have worked for.
  • All the engineering “scrum” team members are globally distributed.
  • I found it more difficult to get to know them.
  • I knew that I needed to be intentional in order to build a good team dynamic.

6 of 19

Small changes

  • Last Spring, after taking over fully for the previous Product Manager, I implemented a weekly ice breaker session.
  • We turn on our cameras and go around the virtual room to answer a fun question of the week.
  • Some team members messaged me saying that this was the first time that they had seen some of their teammates on camera, and they had worked with them for almost a year.

7 of 19

Big impacts

  • Getting to know our teammates strengthens our relationships with them.
  • Builds trust among teammates and helps to humanize the work that we are doing.
  • After each ice breaker session, I update our Confluence page with interesting facts about our session.
  • This can help new team members learn about the team that they are joining.

8 of 19

“But you don’t have to take my word for it.”�-LeVar Burton, longtime host of Reading Rainbow

  • Many others have seen the benefits of good team building with remote teams.
  • On a recent Cleveland Product Lean Coffee meeting, several attendees had thoughts on this topic.

9 of 19

Other ideas from Lean Coffee

  • Once per month for one hour, let the team organically converse (i.e. water cooler chat).
  • Online class on craft beer, wine, bourbon, or a fun meal.
  • In addition to celebrating birthdays (some may not like this), celebrate work anniversaries.
  • Background theme of the coolest place you’d like to work (i.e. beach, mountains, Mars).

10 of 19

Benefits of team building

  • Improve communication through team activities.
  • Social activities can offer opportunities for trust building (not the old “trust fall”).
  • Productivity increases when you get to know how your team works best.
  • Fosters learning and creativity.
  • Higher comfort level when interacting with others because they are in a familiar environment (i.e. home).

11 of 19

Feeling lonely or isolated?

  • Team building activities help combat loneliness that remote teammates may be feeling.
  • Shy team members may thrive in these activities, helping you understand better how they prefer to work.
  • Be aware of intl teams with time zone, language, and/or cultural differences – create low-pressure activities.
  • Fun virtual team-building activities help in reducing stress and taking care of employee’s mental health.

​

12 of 19

What are you waiting for?

  • Allows for healthy competition and bragging rights (i.e. solo/team games).
  • Video conferencing builds strong bonds, compared to email, Slack, etc.
  • Develops confidence by sharing knowledge and skills.
  • Creates something to look forward to.
  • Improves company culture.

13 of 19

Let’s do some team building

  • Vevox - Dashboard

14 of 19

What about Stakeholders?

  • Be open to new possibilities – schedule 15 minute virtual “cups of coffee” with each stakeholder regularly.
  • Factor in time zone differences and regional holidays.
  • Make it personal – as much as they are busy, try to squeeze in a little small talk (see first point).

15 of 19

Stakeholders and Scrum teams

  • Hold Sprint Review meetings to allow them to participate with your team.
  • Embrace multi-channel conversations – think they are holding back? PM them to help move things along.
  • Give them the info that they need (true of in-person meetings as well)

16 of 19

How to unlock all of these benefits

  • Be committed.
  • Be consistent.
  • Get buy-in from manager or company (i.e. some activities may require a cost and/or take more time).
  • Help other Product Managers and teams so that they can unlock the same benefits.

17 of 19

Resources for team building activities

18 of 19

We’re hiring at SquareTrade

  • Technical Product Manager for merchant integrations
  • Frontend Engineer
  • Senior IT Project Manager
  • Full list of open positions https://www.squaretrade.com/careers/job-postings/
  • Tell them Kumba Alafi sent you

19 of 19

Thank you!