3 Best Practices to Achieving Cross-Functional Alignment (Part 3)

This is the third in a series of blog posts that offer best practices for realizing better alignment across your organization’s different teams. Get caught up on Part 1: Pre-Planning, and Part 2: Planning.

Post-Planning: Establish a Communication Cadence That’s Valuable and Productive

Once you’ve worked to establish cross-functional alignment through joint retrospectives and planning sessions (see part 1 and part 2 of this series of blog posts), your work isn’t done. It’s really only started. Creating and maintaining alignment among teams takes purposeful effort throughout the year. Once planning is over, develop and agree on a cross-functional communication cadence that helps you maintain alignment with other teams.

The key to developing a successful cross-functional communication cadence with other teams is to ensure the format is effective, efficient, and valuable to all parties involved. Many organizations default to a recurring meeting to discuss x,y,z topic or review goal progress. While this can work for some organizations, these recurring meetings often become unproductive and poorly attended because little to no time is spent preparing for them.

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Maximizing the Output of Cross-Functional Communication Methods

If you choose to go the meeting route to stay connected, remember that preparation is the key to success. Here are a few tips to improve the effectiveness of recurring meetings:

  • Agree on the goals of the meeting and evaluate whether those goals have been met each time the group meetings.
  • Consider sending read-ahead materials whenever possible to minimize updates and maximize collaboration.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the meetings regularly and be prepared to adapt them as needed to meet the group’s needs.

Alternatively, there are other formats for staying aligned on goals that might work better for your team. For example, consider creating a cross-functional communication cadence or working session focused on specific issues uncovered during the planning process as opposed to overarching check-in meetings.

For Customer Success, this might mean creating a method for Customer Success Managers to regularly share case studies and learnings with Sales Managers. For product marketing and sales teams, this may mean creating a regular communication around upcoming product launches, enablement sessions, and feedback opportunities.

Building long-lasting alignment takes effort and purpose, but the work will pay dividends over the course of the year. Aligned teams are better equipped to serve and retain customers, capitalize on new and existing product value, and ultimately grow the business. As your organization embarks on a new year of growth, keep these simple steps in mind to ensure your teams are in sync and ready to maximize their impact in the upcoming year.

Make This Your Best Year Yet

Every team in your organization plays a critical role in ensuring your success. All teams, not just Customer Success and Product Marketing, must be totally aligned on the goal and the vehicle for how to reach it. At Carema Consulting, we work with B2B SaaS businesses just like yours to help them achieve their revenue growth goals. Contact us today to learn about our approach and capabilities.