It’s a special episode of #Build. Host Maggie Crowley is joined by members of Drift’s Product and Engineering teams. Meet Alexa Nguyen, Senior Product Manager, Trevor Rundell, Director of Engineering, and Peter Karl II, Lead, Product Efficiency.

The group chats through how product and engineering can work together most efficiently. That means breaking through the perception that engineers should be wholly removed from the customer. To tackle this problem at Drift, tech leads here are directly responsible for the outcomes of the products they’re working on (where at most organizations, that’s the Product Manager’s responsibility). This gives engineering more context around the products they're building. And empowers them. They’re expected to be on the front lines answering questions from customers. Because at Drift, it’s all about putting the customer first.

Learn more about story time and how to get your engineering and products teams better aligned in today’s episode of #Build.

Before you go leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and share the pod with your friends!

Be sure to check out more insights on the Drift blog at drift.com/blog and find us on Twitter @maggiecrowley, @drift and @seekingwisdomio.

In this episode:

0:37 - Introductions of Alexa, Trevor, and Peter

1:44 - Tech Leads vs. Product Managers

3:48 - Creating a space of forward-thinking work called “Story Time”

5:50 - When to bring an engineer into a project

6:30 - Starting Story Time with a well-defined problem

7:44 - What does the customer want?

8:36 - The team discusses their first Story Time.

10:24 - Pencils Not Pixels

11:04 - How to communicate this idea with new engineers

12:00 - What is the role of conflict/disagreement?

12:34 - Do not mistake feedback for criticism.

14:00 - How to disagree with respect

14:36 - One-on-one meetings explained

16:19 - The best PM to work with

17:18 - Practice at work

18:12 - Experience working with Drift’s co-founder

20:26 - Advice to the listeners