This document discusses the benefits of empowered teams that have collaborative environments. It outlines different levels of team empowerment, from siloed teams to fully empowered teams. Fully empowered teams involve the whole team in strategic goals and product discovery. They are given autonomy to make decisions and solve customer problems. This leads to higher success rates, better morale, and greater employee retention compared to traditional command-and-control or siloed team structures. The document advocates for clear goals, goal-based roadmaps, continuous delivery, and data-driven decisions to create highly empowered and collaborative environments.

1. Why empowered teams have the best
collaborative environment and how to seek for
it
D o n a t a s S t i r b y s
P r o d u c t O w n e r

2. of employ ees believ e that a lac k
of c ollaboration is direc tly
related to product failure
( s a l e s f o r c e . c o m )
86%

3. “Look Donatas, we need to focus on technical
debt”
F e l l o w d e v e l o p e r

4. • Te a m s a s p o o l o f r e s o u r c e s ( s i l o s )
• Wa t e r f a l l p r a c t i c e s
• D e c i s i o n s b y h i g h e s t c o m m o n a u t h o r i t y
• I n t e r i m p r o x y t e a m m e m b e r s
• C o l l a b o r a t i o n i s n o t s o g o o d
Teams working in silos

5. • G o o d a g i l e p r a c t i c e s , b u t f e a t u r e f a c t o r y
m e n t a l i t y
• F o c u s o n v e l o c i t y a n d s t o r y p o i n t s
• C o l l a b o r a t i o n i n o n e t e a m
Cross-functional agile teams, but not empowered

6. • R o a d m a p i s d e c i d e d b y H I P P O
• A l m o s t n o v a l i d a t i o n w i t h t h e c u s t o m e r
Traditional flow of a feature mentality team

7. • S t r a t e g i c g o a l s a n d d i r e c t i o n
• Te a m i s e m p o w e r e d t o m a k e d e c i s i o n s
• H o w t o f i t d i r e c t i o n i n a r o a d m a p ? G o a l s i n s t e a d
• W h o l e t e a m i n v o l v e d i n e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n
• M u c h c l o s e r t o t h e c u s t o m e r
Cross-functional empowered agile teams

8. • D e l e g a t i o n
• E n a b l e t h e P O t o s o l v e p r o b l e m s
• O n e p e r s o n a c c o u n t a b l e , n o t a c o m m i t t e e
Product Owners empowered by the company leadership

9. Typical evolution of a Product Owner
• S e c r e t a r y i n t h e b e g i n n i n g
• E n t r e p r e n e u r w h e n e m p o w e r e d
• S e n i o r P O V s . J u n i o r P O
• E v o l u t i o n i n m o d e r n t e c h c o m p a n i e s i s q u i c k
• E n t r u s t t h e t e a m w i t h m e a n i n g f u l w o r k

10. Team morale and collaboration is usually very high in an
empowered environment
• D e v e l o p e r s n e e d s t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e p r o b l e m
• K n o w t h e “ w h y ”

11. “In last two years only one developer has left
the company”
C o m p a n y e m p l o y e e

12. “It is not about money; it is about the impact
you can do with your team”
F e l l o w d e v e l o p e r

13. A few tips on how to involve your developers more
• H a r n e s s d e v e l o p e r s f o r i n n o v a t i o n
• E n g i n e e r s t o h e a r c u s t o m e r p r o b l e m s
• W h e n e m p o w e r e n g i n e e r s t o s o l v e t h o s e p r o b l e m s

14. “We are 10 years in this market – we can
guess what they need”
C o n f i d e n t C E O

15. • C l e a r c o m p a n y s t r a t e g i c g o a l s
• G o a l s b a s e d r o a d m a p
• W h o l e t e a m i n v o l v e d i n p r o d u c t d i s c o v e r y
• C o n t i n u o u s d e l i v e r y / d e p l o y m e n t ( q u i c k f e e d b a c k l o o p s )
• D a t a - d r i v e n d e c i s i o n s
Main elements of an empowered collaboration environment

16. • M u c h h i g h e r p o s s i b i l i t y o f a p r o d u c t s u c c e s s
• C l o s e r t o t h e c u s t o m e r
• Wa y b e t t e r m o r a l e o f t h e t e a m
• M u c h b e t t e r e m p l o y e e r e t e n t i o n
So why you should strive to have empowered teams?

17. Thank You
“ Ideas ar e easy. Solving customer pr oblems is har d”