Peter Brumby is Product Manager at Financial Times

Four months ago we formed the Ads Growth team, a group of five with one clear goal: drive more revenue through digital ad products without harming user engagement. We had just six months to prove our worth, with the potential to become permanent if successful. As we near the four-month mark, here are four key lessons we’ve learned.

1. First, align the team around the core problem

When the team first formed, we kicked things off with a mini design sprint to align ourselves around our first objective: enhancing the FT’s digital ad capabilities for luxury advertisers. Since we all came from different teams with varying levels of knowledge, it was crucial to focus on understanding the problem before diving into solutions. This early alignment helped us quickly get up to speed and by spending more time in the problem space upfront, we became more efficient and saved time overall.

2. Prioritize impact above all else

Once we had made progress on our first priority, we needed to find new initiatives to pursue. Unsurprisingly, the requests then started flooding in and we had to get good at quickly sizing impact and being brutal in prioritisation. As a temporary team, we knew that making an impact was our best shot at becoming permanent. We therefore aimed for a mix of quick high-impact initiatives alongside longer-term projects that might not be finished in time but are still of value. Opportunity size became our key tool for cutting through the noise and remains the primary way we discuss trade-offs with stakeholders.

3. Innovation is much easier for a team structured this way

One of the most rewarding aspects of our work has been the freedom to focus pretty much exclusively on innovation. As a new team, we don’t own any code repositories or have any mature products, so our maintenance work is very minimal. This allows us to dedicate the vast majority of our time to the ‘Investigate’ and ‘Experiment’ parts of the FT’s product lifecycle. I’m aware this is a rarity, but it makes sense for incubator-style teams like this to be protected so they can focus on innovation.

4. Stay connected, you’re not in a vacuum

However, this setup also presents challenges. Innovation can’t happen in isolation, our products must integrate with tech being developed by other teams, and they need to be scalable once more mature. Another challenge was understanding the remit of our team versus others, at times it was unclear what we were allowed to change vs what was owned by others. Clear comms and staying connected is essential in solving both of these challenges, and is something we’re still refining.

Looking ahead

Our journey so far has been super exciting, with plenty of wins, mistakes, and learnings. I have no doubt there will be more lessons to come, but as long as we stay reflective and adaptable, we’ll continue to refine our approach and drive impactful results.

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