To build a qualified cross-functional team, you need to know this!

In traditional organizations, there are multiple departments, which are responsible for specific functions-marketing, finance, human resources, operations, etc. In many cases, these departments operate independently, sharing information only when multiple departments are involved. However, the modern requirements for building and delivering software require the ability to solve a large number of problems at high speed. What follows is the need for a complete team to reflect the various expertise that provides solutions. This is where the cross-functional team comes in.

What is a cross-functional team?

A cross-functional team is a group of people from different fields who gather together and use their unique abilities to achieve a common goal. The cross-functional team is not only the collision of various functional expertise in the horizontal direction, but also the comparison of the vertical top-down structure.

Cross-functional teams composed of team members and key decision makers are not uncommon. Cross-functional teams are especially useful for organizations that practice DevOps methods. Its value can be reflected in many ways:

Cross-functional teams help reduce the bureaucracy of key decisions. The goal here is to have the necessary representation when a decision needs to be made quickly. This makes cross-functional teams very suitable for DevOps, where agile thinking is the key to achieving faster iterations and improving the quality of results.

Cross-functional teams can also improve problem-solving skills. In the DevOps approach, quality and overall customer value are very important, so any problems that arise require the best solutions. A cross-functional team has a variety of people with cross-functional expertise, and each member can put forward different ideas. For example, when discussing how to display products and services and obtain effective customer feedback, the opinions of marketing experts are more informative. They know the right conditions for customers to interact with the product and provide valuable feedback.

Cross-functional teams improve team cohesion. People in different departments can be encouraged to collaborate and learn more about the differences between them (mainly at work). This helps to bring them closer and build relationships, which will come in handy when collaborating. In this way, group thinking and a single echo chamber will disappear, and people who express non-mainstream or different opinions will be more comfortable.

Challenges faced by cross-functional teams

Although the idea of a cross-functional team sounds wonderful and is quite simple in practice, up to 75% of cross-functional teams are not successful. Cross-functional teams are plagued by work habits and sub-cultural differences. Each member from different departments of the organization has their own way of working.
This makes it a little difficult to adapt to the new way of working. Remember, if each team member has their own preferences, they may not be used to this way of working. Other challenges faced by cross-functional teams are: inconsistent goals, poor communication, misunderstanding of roles and chain of command, different tools, and conflicting methods.

Inconsistent goals

Each team member can contribute to the entire project. But it is easy to forget the connection between their work and other team members. This is a very common problem, especially for team members who come to adjust the product temporarily.
But it often leads to misunderstandings about certain issues, such as when the tasks of a particular member should enter the cycle. When members complete their tasks, they may or may only do minimal work. These conflicts will extend to smaller details, such as data storage format and other aspects. The result is that the quality of delivery is uneven, and the product needs to be reviewed, which slows down the team.

Poor communication

It is often difficult for cross-functional team members to enter a good communication rhythm. First, they may be used in different channels, which may cause information to be out of sync. Second, there may be differences in communication frequency. Some team members may like to send frequent notifications to inform them of every change they make. But others may just want to receive news of more important milestones and major changes. Some people may prefer written summaries and short voice recordings, while others want longer face-to-face meetings to analyze plans, discoveries, analysis, etc.
Failure to receive critical information in a timely and consistent manner can lead to errors and delayed results.

Misunderstanding roles and chain of command

In many cross-functional teams, members of one department may make recommendations, and these recommendations must be implemented by another person. For example, a business person might suggest developing a feature to track specific indicators about user behavior. Developers and UI designers may just treat it as a suggestion, until someone signs off at a higher level before implementing the action. But the project leader may have regarded it as a project that does not require any additional licenses.

In essence, team members may have an understanding of each of their work, but they do not understand the full content of the team's ultimate goal. Sometimes, people who only need to connect with one or two other members may not even know what the other members are doing.

Tools are not uniform

In many traditional organizations, digital transformation is not comprehensive, and technologies such as cloud computing may not have penetrated the entire organization.
In addition, in daily tasks, many departments may use different tools. Whether it is automated testing or communication about the progress of the software development life cycle, having too many different tools can be a headache.
Once team members start to collaborate, it is extremely challenging to gather all relevant data in one place and achieve full visibility.

Method conflict

In a department, the part equivalent to testing and quality assurance is generally placed last. Another department may adopt agile methods to complete the project. When members from these different methodological backgrounds meet, their method of completing the project may cause the progress to be out of sync.

Considerations for building a successful cross-functional team

To build a successful cross-functional team, there are many aspects that need attention.

• Specific leadership: In addition to a leader for each function, the entire team needs to have an end-to-end leader. Each team member should also know which leader issues specific instructions.
• Clear goals and plans: A major goal must be set for the team from the beginning, and a detailed plan/road map must be developed, and milestones must be drawn on the timeline. The ability of each team member should be reflected in how it achieves the ultimate goal. In addition to mentioning expertise, also talk about the tasks that the person will complete.
• Frequent evaluations: Draft an evaluation system for each function in the team to ensure that they do not use the wrong methods for scoring. In addition, track the progress of the overall goal and analyze the data to determine whether the problem is overall team cohesion or a specific function.
• Effective communication: Make sure everyone knows who they will spend the most time talking with and what they will talk about. Make them consistent in tools, nature/composition of messages, frequency, and other practices.
• Flexibility: Build the team in such a way that you can receive input regardless of the actual location of the contributor. To leave room for sudden expansion, it is easier for members to find replacements. This can be done by always saving the document so that new entrants can get started quickly. Cultivate an agile mentality among members so that they can work in a way that predicts any curveball and can adjust accordingly.
• Connection and trust: Practice exercises that help strengthen relationships within the team, so that members are not afraid to give opinions or admit failure.

The minefield of building successful cross-functional teams

To establish and maintain a continuously successful cross-functional team, the following mistakes must be avoided:

• Unreasonable prioritization: Avoid only supporting one function and ignoring other functions. This may be seen as favoritism and demoralize other team members. Try to strike a balance when providing resources and meeting other needs. When the resources are not sufficient, the greatest benefit of the collective is given with the smallest effort.
• Disorderly hierarchical system: Don't create a situation where a member always runs to different members and asks them to agree to continue to perform an operation. It is up to the members to decide which behaviors are low-risk, and which ones require the consent of superiors.
• Micro-management: Minimize the number of meetings that are not related to important announcements and progress checks. Where creativity is needed, leave room for team members to come up with the best solution for collaboration. If this culture is not encouraged, team members will deal with the escalating small challenges and seek unavailable solutions from the leader.
• Blame: Avoid the habit of blaming when something goes wrong or the goal is not reached. In many cross-functional teams, failures are usually caused by mishandling by multiple people with different functions. Since many tasks depend on others, this is not always one person's fault. The focus is on lessons learned from successful functions, especially those lessons that can also be applied to other areas.