The Hidden Force Tearing Your Product and Engineering Teams Apart

Building great software products requires strong collaboration between product and engineering teams.

Yet in company after company, I've witnessed an all-too-familiar pattern of friction between these groups.

As both a former developer and product leader, I've experienced this tension from both sides.

The problem often manifests in subtle ways. Engineers complain about unclear requirements and constant scope changes. Product managers grumble about missed deadlines and pushback on features. But these surface-level frustrations mask a deeper underlying issue.

The Real Problem Isn't People

Many companies try to solve this friction by focusing on process changes or team structures. They implement new frameworks, reorganize reporting lines, or hire consultants to help "manage the healthy tension." But these solutions rarely work because they don't address the fundamental issue.

Through my experience leading both engineering and product teams, I've discovered that the root cause usually comes down to misaligned incentives.

How Misaligned Incentives Create Conflict

Think about how we typically measure and reward these teams. Engineers are often evaluated on code quality, technical excellence, and delivery speed. Product managers get rewarded for shipping features and hitting roadmap milestones.

Those metrics might sound reasonable in isolation, but they create natural conflict. When a product manager is incentivized to ship more features, they'll push for quick solutions. Meanwhile, engineers rewarded for code quality will resist rushed implementations that create technical debt.

One sentence cannot effectively bridge competing motivations.

Examples from the Trenches

I've seen this play out countless times in my own companies.

At Stackify, we initially had our engineering team focused heavily on technical metrics while our product team chased feature delivery targets.

The result? Constant friction over priorities and implementation approaches.

A simple feature request would turn into lengthy debates.

Product would push for the quick two-hour solution to hit their quarterly goals.

Engineering would advocate for the two-month solution to maintain technical excellence.

Neither side was wrong – they were just optimizing for different outcomes based on their incentives.

The solution isn't choosing one side over the other but aligning everyone around shared goals.

Creating Aligned Incentives

The key to solving this is creating shared incentives tied to customer and business outcomes. Here's what worked for us:

1. Make customer impact the north star metric for both teams

2. Evaluate feature delivery and technical quality together, not separately

3. Give engineers more context about business goals and customer needs

4. Include product teams in technical planning and debt discussions

5. Reward collaboration and joint problem-solving over individual achievements

When we aligned incentives around customer success, the dynamic completely changed. Engineers started proposing creative solutions to customer problems. Product managers became more receptive to technical considerations.

Success requires everyone rowing in the same direction.

Leadership's Critical Role

As a leader, you set the tone for how teams work together.

The incentive structures you create – both formal and informal – shape behavior more than any process or framework.

Start by examining your organization's reward systems. Are you inadvertently creating competing incentives? Are you measuring what really matters for business success? Most importantly, are you giving teams the shared context they need to make good decisions together?

Fixing misaligned incentives takes deliberate effort from leadership.

Moving Forward Together

Breaking down the friction between product and engineering teams isn't easy, but it's essential for building great products. By recognizing that misaligned incentives are often the root cause, you can start making meaningful changes.

Focus on creating shared goals, providing full context, and rewarding collaboration. When teams are truly incentivized to work together toward common outcomes, the "healthy tension" naturally evolves into healthy collaboration.

Success in software development comes from unified teams working toward shared goals, not from managing tension between competing interests.

What steps will you take to align incentives in your organization?

The Bottom Line

Friction between product and engineering teams isn't inevitable – it's usually a symptom of misaligned incentives.

By creating shared goals, measuring what truly matters, and rewarding collaborative behavior, you can transform that tension into productive partnership. Remember, your incentive structures speak louder than any process or policy you put in place.