Empowering Teams with the Product Team Maturity Assessment

Product teams often have the talent and drive to succeed, but roadblocks like shifting priorities, unclear goals, and missed deadlines can stall progress. When your team spends more time reacting to problems than making real strides, it’s time to assess what’s getting in the way. The Product Team Maturity Assessment is designed to help teams take stock of where they are today, pinpoint opportunities for growth, and build a plan that sets them up for long-term success.

Why We Created the Product Team Maturity Assessment

Even high-performing teams hit roadblocks. Whether aligning around a common vision, improving communication, or executing efficiently, teams can easily find themselves stuck, and unsure of what needs to change.

We developed the Product Team Maturity Assessment to help teams understand their current state and identify areas for improvement. Rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, the assessment adapts to each team’s unique context, making it applicable to any size team or growth stage.

What Teams Can Gain from the Assessment

The Product Team Maturity Assessment provides more than just a snapshot of where your team stands—it offers a clear path for growth. Here are the three most valuable outcomes your team can expect:

• Clarity on Strengths and Gaps: The assessment helps teams gain a clear understanding of their current capabilities and areas needing improvement. By mapping out where the team stands in relation to the five growth stages, it becomes easier to see what’s working well and where attention is needed. This clarity allows teams to focus their energy on the right areas, avoiding guesswork and enabling smarter decision-making.
• A Shared Vision for Growth: One of the most powerful aspects of this tool is its ability to align the team around a shared understanding of where they are and where they want to go. Teams can set collective goals and define the next steps together, ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction. This shared vision fosters a sense of unity and purpose, making the journey toward improvement much more cohesive and effective.
• Actionable Steps for Continuous Improvement: The assessment doesn’t just show you the gaps—it gives you clear steps to close them. With clear insights into what’s required at each growth stage, teams can develop a focused plan to tackle specific challenges. The emphasis on practical, achievable actions ensures that teams not only identify what needs improvement but also have the tools and steps to make it happen.

Why This is Our Go-To Tool for Team Growth

We’ve seen the transformative impact of this assessment firsthand. It’s become our go-to tool for helping teams grow because it provides a structured, flexible framework that adapts to different contexts. Here’s why it works:

• It’s Built on Experience: The assessment draws from our decades of experience working with product development teams. We’ve seen the patterns that lead to success, and we’ve distilled those insights into a framework that teams can use to guide their growth.
• It’s Actionable: We didn’t want to create a tool that just tells teams what’s wrong. We wanted to give them a clear path forward. The assessment offers practical steps teams can take at each stage of growth, making it easy to translate insights into action.
• It’s Collaborative: This isn’t a top-down tool. It’s designed to involve the whole team, encouraging collaboration and shared ownership of the growth journey. Teams work together to assess their current state, define their goals, and create a plan for success.
• It’s Flexible: No two teams are exactly the same, and the assessment reflects that. It’s designed to be flexible, allowing teams to adapt it to their unique context. Whether a team is just getting started or is well-established, the assessment provides value at every stage of growth.

Case Study: Mary’s Journey Through the Product Team Maturity Assessment

Meet Mary, a product manager at a mid-sized software company. Although her teammates were talented and hardworking, they were frustrated with a large backlog of work and jumping from one high priority to another.

Mary decided to take the Product Team Maturity Assessment herself to see if she could gain more insight into what was holding her team back. As she worked through the assessment, she quickly realized that while her team excelled in execution, their alignment with the company’s vision and strategy was lacking. Each team member had a different understanding of what was most important, which led to confusion and wasted effort.

Armed with these insights, Mary brought the assessment to her team. They went through the process together, honestly evaluating where they stood on each of the five growth stages. This exercise helped the team have open, transparent conversations about their strengths and areas for improvement. It also allowed them to align around a shared vision of where they wanted to go next.

Together, they identified strategic alignment as their most pressing need. They set a collective goal to improve this area over the next quarter by refining their planning process, setting clear priorities, and making sure everyone understood how their work contributed to the company’s broader objectives. They also created an action plan for getting there, based on the insights they gained from the assessment.

In just a few weeks, they began to see results. The team’s focus improved, deadlines were met, and projects got back on track. More importantly, team morale soared as they shifted from reacting to problems to proactively driving results. The assessment not only helped them identify areas for growth, but it gave them the tools to make real progress and improve how they worked together.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Every team faces its own set of obstacles when working through the assessment. Here are a few common pitfalls to watch out for, and how to navigate them:

• Setbacks and Slow Growth: It’s easy to become discouraged by setbacks, but they’re a natural part of the process. Use them as opportunities to learn and improve. Focus on continuous development rather than perfection.
• Overestimating Progress: Teams sometimes believe they’re further along than they are. An honest, evidence-based assessment is crucial for identifying real gaps and focusing on what matters most.
• Resistance to Change: Change can be uncomfortable, and teams might resist new approaches. Involve everyone in the process from the beginning, clearly explaining how the maturity model will benefit the team.

How to Get Started

To get started with the Product Team Maturity Assessment, begin by honestly evaluating where your team stands. Reflect on your current strengths and areas for improvement. Use the framework to identify the specific stage your team is in, and then think about where you want to go next.

Once you’ve identified your current and ideal stages, work together as a team to create a plan for getting there. Focus on the foundational seeds of growth—strategic alignment, customer focus, team empowerment, execution excellence, proactive engineering, outcomes driven. These are the core elements that will drive your team’s success.

And remember, this is an ongoing process. Revisit the assessment regularly to track your progress, adjust your strategies, and ensure your team is always moving in the right direction.

• Download the Model: Access the Product Team Maturity Model (PDF) and start your assessment today.
• Collaborate on Miro: Engage your team in a dynamic, interactive way.
• Learn More with Ready Steady Grow: Download our book for deeper insights and practical advice.

Have questions? Schedule a call with us to see how the model can fit your team’s unique needs. We’re here to help.