Cross team alignment

Overview

Ok, starting with the basics: what is a cross functional team? A cross functional team is simply a group of experts with diverse skills who work together to achieve a shared goal. These teams drive innovation and problem-solving by using their unique perspectives, and typically include people from different levels and departments of the organization.

There’s only a problem: they can also be a mess. When you bring together people from different teams and levels of seniority, you have competing priorities, power struggles, and a lot of meetings.

Asynchronous video collaboration solves for this. Here’s why:

1. More flexibility: people can participate on their own time, without delaying decisions due to conflicting schedules.
2. Better alignment: video allows you give more context and transparency to your ideas. And anyone can revisit the content to review and clarify points they may have missed or misunderstood.
3. Reduced power struggles: working async reduces the pressure to answer on the spot, promotes thoughtful exchanges, and fosters empathy among teams.

When to use the cross-team alignment Playbook

There are many examples of cross functional teams: when you need to define a new pricing strategy, organize a product launch, plan the roadmap, or come-up with new ways to tackle customer churn. Most of the times, however, members are not fully dedicated to the work of the cross functional team. They still have their normal jobs to do. And this is the biggest reason for failure in cross functional: team members have a lot of their plate and aligning requires a lot of effort. This is exactly why we recommend that any cross functional team should use this playbook to increase visibility, collaboration, and alignment.

Let’s get started.

Define guidelines for effective collaboration

When you're working with a cross functional team, it's important to establish some ground rules to make sure everyone can work effectively together. Here are some steps you can take to get started:

1. Define the team's purpose: ensure everyone understands what they are trying to achieve by working together. For example, by defining OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).
2. Identify roles and responsibilities: everyone needs to be clear on their role, how they contribute to the project, and how decisions will be made. You can use a RACI Matrix (stands for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) and assign tasks in your project management software.
3. Set communication guidelines: Define which communication channels you will use, how often you will meet, response times, and even how to give feedback.

Manage projects and knowledge effectively

One reason for conflict in cross-functional teams is having different preferences for managing projects and information. This is especially true in large organizations.

Another issue that can cause misalignment is when teams need to use different tools to complete their tasks. For example, when launching a new product, the designer may use Figma to create communication assets, marketing may create landing pages in Webflow, and sales and product marketing may use Google Slides to create the sales pitch. To ensure that everyone can provide feedback on each other's work without having to learn multiple tools, video collaboration can play a key role. Here's how it works:

1. Share your proposal or project update: Record your screen and provide context in the introduction before diving into the proposal. For each step, zoom in on key elements so your teammates can check details. You can record directly from the apps you use (Figma, Jira, Notion) using our desktop app, and anyone can access your work without needing a license for those programs.
2. Use video annotation to specify where you need feedback: Highlight the moments in the video where you expect feedback and mention the relevant people, so they know their input is required. They can reply with written comments or record their own video reply. You can also add polls in comments for a quick show of hands.
3. Share your video: Use our Slack integration to automatically post new videos into the appropriate Slack channel. You can also add the Claap of the video in your project management app and even embed it in Notion. Don't forget to keep track of its status using labels.
4. Reply to comments: As feedback starts coming in, ensure you clarify doubts, answer questions, and move forward with decisions. Our Claap integration with Slack supports two-way sync for comments, so you can reply to comments on your videos from Slack and it will automatically sync with Claap (and the other way around).
5. Move to execution: Once a decision is made and you agree on next steps, resolve the thread, update the Claap label, and let everyone know of its status.

Integrating live discussions and async collaboration

Running efficient meetings requires more than just inviting the right people. It's essential to create a culture of collaboration and accountability. The key is to maintain continuity between meetings and asynchronous communication, so everyone has the context they need to make informed decisions.

To move faster, you schedule meetings with key stakeholders in your cross functional team. For instance, the VP of Marketing can meet with the VP of Sales to align on the business plan. However, meetings can create information asymmetry, as other stakeholders may not have the full context. This can lead to booking meetings to debrief about previous meetings, resulting in a complete breakdown of the process.

To avoid this issue, it's vital to ensure continuity between synchronous and asynchronous communication, and that's where Claap comes in. By recording your meetings with Claap, you can easily share the recording with others, who can contribute on their own time, leading to real-time updates and communication. Furthermore, you can track and review past discussions and decisions, ensuring that everyone is always up-to-date and has the information they need to make informed decisions.

Conclusion

Collaboration between cross functional teams is crucial for innovation and problem-solving, but let's be honest, it's not always easy. To overcome this challenge, you need to establish clear guidelines for productive collaboration, manage projects and knowledge effectively, and elevate your meeting skills. Asynchronous video collaboration can be a powerful tool for achieving these goals, providing more flexibility, better alignment, and reduced power struggles. With these tips, you can turn your cross functional teams into highly productive groups that drive real business results.