Many factors need to come into play for building a winning product. Building high performance teams that are productive and innovative is a must. The teams have to have an appetite for setting high goals and for taking calculated risks. Commitment and continued execution is another characteristic of a successful team.

High performance teams
Hiring the right people for the product you are building is a first requirement. However a company cannot build a high performance team just by hiring the smartest people one can find.

One of the key requirements is to set high performance goals for the team. The business leader has to engage himself constantly with the goals set. As the commitment is important, every member of the team should buy into the team’s goals as well. This buy-in comes when all of them are involved in the product planning. Employees will become stakeholders and see the value to themselves and to the company. This commitment should create a high performance culture where everybody performs in ways they have never before had a chance to.

Team work and collaboration is another important factor in building high performance teams. With many companies using distributed product development centers to be more efficient and cost effective, team work and collaboration becomes all the more critical. All members of the team should be given an opportunity to innovate in their own respective ways. Employee should be given requirements but not product implementation decisions. When necessary, the business leader will need to challenge the employee decision making.

Communication is another key aspect of strong teams. To avoid confusion and frustration, one has to communicate constantly to keep everybody updated during early stages of product development and again at the time of integration. Entire team has to keep itself updated with the new technologies and processes. Today, technology is changing very rapidly and the team that does not keep up with the latest will soon start lagging behind.