The Global Study of Product Team Performance 2016, conducted by Actuation Consulting, yielded new factors shared by most high performing product teams. Over the next few posts, I’ll discuss survey participants responses and the statistically significant factors that affect product team performance.
Understanding the Participant Profiles
Participants in the study included individuals with these titles:
- Brand managers
- Business analysts
- Development managers
- Engineers
- Product managers
- Product owners
- Program Managers
- Project managers
- Text/QAs
- User experience professionals
More than 70% of respondents report to a director, vice president, or company officer. Nearly 20% report to a manager. More than half of respondents work for organizations with technology as their primary focus. Other segments focus on services, consumer products, education, and government.
Today’s post considers the response to the first two survey questions.
Question: Did your company achieve its financial goals and objectives last year?
| Response | Percentage |
| Yes | 73.2% |
| No | 26.8% |
Nearly three-fourths of respondents (73.2%) indicated that their company achieved its financial goals. Slightly more than one-fourth of respondents (26.8%) revealed that their organizations did not meet financial objectives. Unmet financial goals are an excellent reason to take a closer look at a company’s processes and practices. A close examination may allow changes to be made that improve results.
Question: Which of these statements best describes your view of your core product team’s performance against organizational expectations?
| Survey answer | Percentage |
| We deliver value consistently on scope, schedule, and cost | 43.0% |
| We deliver value, but lack consistency | 40.6% |
| We are hit or miss | 11.7% |
| We miss more than we hit | 4.7% |
What Responses Tell Us About Product Team Performance
While 43% of respondents indicated that their product team consistently succeeds in meeting company expectations, 57% see their product teams as experiencing difficulty consistently meeting expectations. There is definitely opportunity for growth on these teams, especially among those that miss the mark more often than they reach it (4.7%)
Watch for my next post when we’ll further explore the answers and revelations gathered from respondents to the latest Global Study of Product Team Performance.
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