Main Takeaways: -Shift your engineers mindset from execution-only, to collective ownership of the problem and the outcome -Empower your team to become proactive problem solvers, not just "doers" -Remove yourself as the blocker to your team's success

1. www.productschool.com
Getting the Best Out of Your Engineers
by HubSpot Product Leader

2. CERTIFICATES
Your Product Management Certificate Path
Product Leadership
Certificate™
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Management Certificate™
Product Management
Certificate™
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3. Corporate
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4. Free Product Management Resources
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5. GETTING THE BEST OUT
OF YOUR ENGINEERS

6. Hello!
Heather Harte
Senior Product Mgr. | Product Lead
HubSpot

7. My Professional Roadmap
Studied Journalism in
University
Worked in Marketing in
a recruitment firm
Shifted focus and
moved into the travel
tech industry
Worked in radio after
university while studying
digital marketing
Co-founded a startup
that built a SaaS
platform for hospitality
recruitment
Product Manager building
tools for the HubSpot
Partner programme
Product Lead for the
teams that build systems
to support our
go-to-market reps

8. What can you expect from today?
● You’ll learn some practical ways to get more out of your engineering team,
without adding extra headcount by:
○ Empowering your team to become proactive problem solvers, not just
"doers"
○ Removing yourself as the blocker to your team's success
○ Getting your head out of JIRA and into long term strategy

9. “
Remember it’s more like a marathon,
not a sprint
9

10. Sound Familiar?
Hey, what
should I work
on next?
Is there a JIRA
ticket created
for that work?
So what’s
coming up on
the roadmap?
Is the backlog
up to date?

11. 1. Leadership is the art of motivating a
group of people to act towards
achieving a common goal
2. We all own the outcome and
lead at different times
Product Design Engineering
Project Start
The ideal state

12. Getting out of Jira is a game changer!
➔ Embrace the anxiety not living in
Jira/Trello etc
➔ Use it to aid prioritisation and
visibility - not to create every
single story and task
➔ Your team will step up, you just
need to be intentional about
stepping back

13. The Mindset Shift

14. The starting point
Investigate
with your engineers’
peers and manager
Understand
the type of person
you are working with
Be mindful
of old patterns and
working behaviours

15. Get to know them, like actual people
➔ Spend some 1:1 time
➔ It doesn’t need to be weekly
➔ Keep the dialogue open, safe
and transparent

16. Working with me exercise
➔ Builds Empathy
➔ Highlights different working
styles
➔ Helps you to understand what
motivates your engineers

17. Circles of strength
➔ Builds empathy
➔ Fosters psychological safety
➔ Allows you to identify your
peer’s weaknesses and
strengths

18. Factoring in
continuous learning

19. Embrace the lack of expertise!

20. Over Communication

21. Tell your story, then tell it again
Articulate
your product vision
and goals
Get feedback
and iterate
Repeat
as much as you
need to

22. Tying the work back
to business goals

23. $1B Revenue
500K Customers
Become the leading network
provider in Europe
Launch Go-Mo app to the APAC and
LATAM markets
Help millions of people to
connect
Enable 5G on all corporate
Go-flow devices
Increase net new ARR
150K new customers
Enable self service top up
2020
2023
OKR
Project
TEAM INITIATIVES,
Objectives, Key
Results
PILLAR GOALS
& METRICS
PRODUCT GROUP
COMPANY
OBJECTIVES
COMPANY MISSION
Project
Project
OKR
CORPORATE SOLUTIONS
Empower corporate travellers to connect, anywhere in the world
The Big Picture
OKR
Project
Increase customer NPS
Reduce time to first connection
Project Project
Increase touchless purchases
Decrease # top up enquiries

24. Building trust
& being vulnerable

25. ➔ Don’t over promise to customers or stakeholders
➔ Focus on value delivered over timelines
➔ Support time spent on reliability and infrastructure
➔ Always add time buffers to everything
➔ Admit when you are wrong or have made a mistake
Let your team know that you have their back

26. Involving engineers
in research

27. Problem Solution
Project kick off
Pilot / Experiment
Continuous learning
and measuring
Discover Define Design Deliver
Insights into the
problem
Areas to
focus on
Many potential
solutions
Solutions that
work
27
Project lifecycle

28. Tips on how to get them invested in research
➔ Share preliminary findings so they can start to
make engineering decisions
➔ Invite them to be notetakers during interviews
➔ Ask them to observe user testing sessions
➔ Include them in design workshops
➔ Promote a shared vocabulary

29. What if they say no?

30. Perfection is the
enemy of good

31. ➔ Choose the the simplest path
forward
➔ Don’t overthink it
➔ Release smaller, iterative
chunks of work
Less conversation, more action
31

32. Being intentional
about team health
& culture

33. Some ideas
➔ Run regular team health check assessment
➔ Setup a regular Zoom watercooler
➔ Try out an online experience, like a virtual class
or escape room
➔ Do a personal storyboard activity
➔ Guess the baby
➔ Run a hackathon

34. Personal storyboard
Guess the
baby!
PM-less hackathon

35. Feedback, feedback
feedback

36. “
Feedback is the breakfast of champions
Ken Blanchard

37. Let’s recap
Factor in continuous learning
Over communicate
Observe the mindset shift
Tie the team’s work back to business goals
Don’t chase perfection
Build trust and be vulnerable
Involve engineers in research
Be intentional about team health & culture
Feedback is the breakfast of champions

38. Lastly, don’t forget to celebrate the wins

39. Thank you!
Let’s keep the conversation going
You can find me at
linkedin.com/in/heatherharte/
hharte@hubspot.com

40. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training