Your engineering team is pushing back on changes. How will you navigate their resistance in a product update?
When your engineering team pushes back on changes, it's crucial to address their concerns thoughtfully while ensuring progress. Here are some strategies to navigate this situation:
How do you handle resistance in your team? Share your strategies.
Your engineering team is pushing back on changes. How will you navigate their resistance in a product update?
When your engineering team pushes back on changes, it's crucial to address their concerns thoughtfully while ensuring progress. Here are some strategies to navigate this situation:
How do you handle resistance in your team? Share your strategies.
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When engineers resist changes, foster collaboration by addressing concerns thoughtfully. Listen actively to understand objections and encourage open dialogue. Provide clear context, explaining the rationale to align goals and expectations. Engage them in brainstorming solutions, empowering the team to co-create effective strategies for implementing changes while maintaining progress and trust.
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"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success." — Henry Ford When engineering pushes back on changes, start by listening to their concerns and understanding the reasons behind the resistance. Align the team on common goals by explaining how the update benefits the product, customers, or business. If technical challenges are a concern, involve engineers early to collaborate on solutions. Break down the update into smaller, manageable tasks to reduce pressure. Lastly, offer support—whether through extra time or resources—to ease the burden. By fostering collaboration and showing mutual respect, you can navigate resistance and ensure a successful update.
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Resistance from engineering teams during product updates isn’t uncommon, it’s found in valid concerns like technical debt, resource constraints, or misaligned priorities. Here’s how I address it: 1) Listen First: Understand their concerns, are they technical risks, bandwidth issues, or scalability challenges? 2) Align on Vision: Clearly connect the update to the product’s long-term goals and customer value. 3) Simplify the Change: Break updates into manageable phases or MVPs to ease implementation. 4) Offer Support: Advocate for resources or adjust timelines to address team constraints. 5) Celebrate Wins: Acknowledge milestones to maintain morale and momentum. What strategies have worked for you?
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I start by actively listening to the engineering team’s concerns to fully understand their perspective and the reasons behind their resistance. By fostering open and transparent communication, I create an environment where they feel valued and heard, which helps build trust. Together, we explore alternative solutions and adjustments that address their challenges while still meeting the product update goals. Highlighting the shared vision and the long-term benefits of the changes motivates the team to collaborate and embrace the necessary adjustments.
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To navigate their resistance, listen to their concerns and understand the challenges from their perspective. Collaborate to find common ground, share the user and business impact driving the changes, and involve them in finding solutions. Transparency and mutual respect go a long way in building alignment.
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When your engineering team resists changes, it’s essential to navigate thoughtfully. Start by listening—open dialogue can uncover the root of their concerns. Then, provide context; sharing the "why" behind decisions helps align expectations. Finally, make them part of the solution. Collaboration fosters buy-in and often leads to innovative ways to move forward while respecting their input. Progress thrives on mutual understanding and teamwork.
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I adopt the Kotter's Change Model, emphasizing communication and collaboration. Listening to the team’s concerns during a logistics software upgrade, I identified pain points and adjusted timelines collaboratively, ensuring alignment without compromising quality. Transparency about the update's benefits fostered trust, and co-created solutions empowered the team to take ownership. For practical insights, "Switch" by Chip and Dan Heath offers strategies for navigating change effectively. Managing resistance is like steering a ship—you adjust the sails, not the destination! ⛵🤝 Do follow for more insights like this! ♻️
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Team resistance often stems from overlooked concerns or misaligned priorities. In my experience leading agile projects like GetWashNow, I tackle this by: 1. Active listening: Understanding their technical constraints and challenges fosters trust. 2. Clear context: Sharing the "why" behind updates bridges the gap between product vision and execution. 3. Collaborative problem-solving: Co-creating solutions aligns objectives without compromising innovation. How do you turn pushback into progress? Let’s exchange ideas!
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When your engineering team pushes back on a product update, channel your inner diplomat. First, grab a virtual coffee (or a real one if you’re lucky) and hear them out. They might be worried about juggling a thousand things, or perhaps they’re just tired of being the "change guinea pigs." Reassure them that you're not trying to add a new feature every Tuesday—there’s a method to the madness. Explain how this update fits into the grand plan (aka the future of the universe, or at least the product’s roadmap). Together, find a way to make it work, maybe a little tweak here, a little more time there. In the end, a mix of humor, empathy, and a good ol’ dose of "we’re all in this together" can turn that resistance into a well-oiled machine.
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When facing resistance from the engineering team, the key is open communication. I’d first listen to their concerns—whether it’s technical complexity or tight deadlines. Then, I’d work to understand the trade-offs and collaborate on possible solutions. By showing the bigger picture of why the update matters and aligning with their goals, I ensure that we move forward together, balancing their expertise with the product’s needs.
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