Balancing Execution and Communication in Long-Term Product Initiatives

Leading a multi-quarter product initiative requires balancing execution with effective communication. This balance is crucial for maintaining momentum, support, and alignment throughout a project’s lifecycle. I want to share some insights from our current web presence unification project at Slack, which illustrates the challenges and strategies involved in this balancing act.

Our Web Presence Project

We’re currently working on a significant overhaul of our web presence. The project has three main milestones:

1. Launch of a new developer hub (slack.dev) - recently completed
2. Migration of all our documentation to the developer hub
3. Merging our developer program and app management dashboards

We’ve completed the first milestone, but there’s still substantial work ahead. This type of long-term project highlights the importance of balancing execution with communication.

The Execution-Communication Balance

It’s easy to focus too heavily on either execution or communication. Concentrate solely on execution, and you risk losing organizational support as stakeholders forget the project’s importance. Overemphasize communication, and you might be perceived as all talk and no action. The key is to find a middle ground.

Strategies for Maintaining Balance

Balancing execution and communication isn’t about following a strict formula. It’s about developing a set of practices that keep your team focused on delivery while ensuring stakeholders remain informed and engaged. Here are some strategies that have been effective for us:

1. Clearly communicate the full scope: From the outset, we’ve been transparent about all three milestones. This approach helps stakeholders understand the project’s full extent and prevents them from mistaking early wins for the finish line. It also provides context for our ongoing work and helps maintain support even when visible progress might slow during complex phases.

2. Provide regular, focused updates: We maintain a consistent cadence of updates, sharing progress on current work and upcoming challenges. These aren’t just status reports; we use them as opportunities to reinforce the project’s value and keep stakeholders engaged. We’re careful to strike a balance between keeping people informed and overwhelming them with details.

3. Use demonstrations effectively: We’ve found that showing is often more powerful than telling. We’ve used demos to showcase progress on the developer hub while also previewing work on documentation migration and dashboard merging. This approach helps make the project’s progress tangible and builds excitement for future phases.

4. Link work to business outcomes: We consistently reinforce how each milestone contributes to improving developer experience and platform adoption. This isn’t just about justifying the project; it’s about helping everyone understand how our work fits into the bigger picture of Slack’s success.

5. Manage expectations: As we move into the documentation migration phase, we’re proactively addressing potential challenges and setting realistic timelines. Being upfront about difficulties helps build trust and prevents disappointment if things don’t go perfectly smoothly.

6. Involve team members in communication: Different team members lead communication on various aspects of the project. This approach ensures diverse perspectives, maintains team engagement, and helps develop communication skills across the team.

7. Utilize roadmaps: We’ve developed roadmaps for each milestone, which serve as tools for both execution planning and stakeholder communication. These roadmaps aren’t just for show; they’re living documents that we update as we learn and progress.

Current Status and Outlook

Our balanced approach has yielded positive results so far. The launch of the new developer hub has been well-received, and we’ve maintained strong organizational support for the subsequent phases. Stakeholders appreciate the regular updates and clear articulation of upcoming work, which has helped secure necessary resources and cross-functional cooperation for the more complex stages ahead.

Conclusion

Managing a multi-phase, long-term project requires ongoing attention to the balance between execution and communication. It’s not about delivering results or communicating effectively in isolation – it’s about maintaining momentum, support, and alignment over an extended period.

By transparently sharing progress, setting clear expectations, and consistently tying work back to organizational goals, we’ve successfully navigated the first phase of our web presence unification. We’re now positioned to address the challenges of documentation migration and dashboard consolidation in the coming quarters.

In long-term initiatives, the balance between doing the work and communicating about it requires constant attention and adjustment. Maintaining this balance is key to the overall success of the project.