cross-functional-collaboration
Help users work effectively across functions. Use when someone is navigating PM-engineering relationships, resolving cross-team conflicts, building product trios, or improving handoffs between design, engineering, and product.
What this skill does
# Cross-functional Collaboration Help the user work effectively across functions using frameworks from 57 product leaders who have built high-performing cross-functional teams at companies from Linear to Airbnb. ## How to Help When the user asks for help with cross-functional collaboration: 1. **Diagnose the friction** - Identify whether the issue is role clarity, communication patterns, or structural 2. **Clarify expectations** - Help define what each function expects from the others 3. **Design the right structure** - Recommend team composition and meeting rhythms 4. **Build relationships** - Emphasize the human elements that make collaboration work ## Core Principles ### Share credit generously Camille Fournier: "Engineers sometimes think that they don't get the credit for their work because the PM takes all the glory. So making every effort to be credit sharing and inclusive of the engineering team." Let engineers present their own work to executives and customers. ### Use 'Yes, and' thinking Adam Grenier: "If you approach it with that 'Yes, and,' it's often still true. Both of these things can be true at once. You could have a different goal than I have." Validate different team goals simultaneously rather than creating false dichotomies. ### Write expectations for each other Nikita Miller: "Have PM, Design, Engineering, and Data leaders write down expectations for their counterparts. Create a 'contract' between roles to clarify shared responsibilities." Revisit these definitions every 3-6 months. ### Include engineers in discovery Christine Itwaru: "Early on, we started bringing in engineers to customer meetings more and more. When we started doing it, the response from the engineering team was great." Direct customer exposure builds technical empathy. ### Don't play telephone Camille Fournier: "If you put yourself in this in-between position and you're playing telephone between stakeholders and engineers, that is very annoying and it's a waste of time for everyone." Connect stakeholders directly to engineers when technical depth is needed. ### Work directly with engineers daily Marty Cagan: "If you're not working every day with a set of engineers on solving problems, you are not a product manager." Remove intermediaries like 'product owners' who act as mediators. ### Build real relationships Ebi Atawodi: "Do you know your engineering manager's birthday? Do you know their work anniversary? Do you know why they're doing the job they're doing?" Strong partnerships are built on personal human connection. ### Code is the common language Amjad Masad: "The common language that everyone shares is code. What if the language becomes actually working prototypes and working applications?" Use functional prototypes rather than static mocks to reduce handoff friction. ### Embrace the 'product trio' Teresa Torres: "The trio is the product manager, the designer, and the software engineer. If you've never worked in a well-functioning trio, this breaks people's brains." Resolve disagreements by seeking more data or better options, not by pulling rank. ## Questions to Help Users - "What does each function expect from the others - have you written it down?" - "Are engineers involved in customer discovery or just receiving specs?" - "When there's a conflict, who is the tiebreaker and how quickly do they act?" - "Do you know the personal career goals of your engineering and design partners?" - "Are you acting as a translator or connecting stakeholders directly to engineers?" ## Common Mistakes to Flag - **Credit hoarding** - PMs taking glory for work engineers built - **Playing telephone** - Acting as an unnecessary intermediary between stakeholders and engineers - **Excluding engineers from ideation** - Treating them as resources rather than creative partners - **Unclear role boundaries** - Not defining who owns what leads to everything falling on the PM - **Ignoring the human element** - Strong collaboration requires knowing your partners as people ## Deep Dive For all 72 insights from 57 guests, see `references/guest-insights.md` ## Related Skills - Running Effective 1:1s - Having Difficult Conversations - Delegating Work - Managing Up
Related in Design
contribute
IncludedLocal-only OSS contribution command center. Auto-refreshes the user's in-flight PR and issue state on invoke so conversations start with full context — no need to brief Claude on what's in flight. Helps the user find issues to contribute to on GitHub, builds per-repo dossiers of what each upstream expects (CLA, DCO, branch convention, AI policy, draft-first, review bots, issue templates), runs deterministic gates before any external action so AI-assisted contributions don't reach maintainers as slop. State is markdown-only: candidate files at ~/.contribute-system/candidates/, repo dossiers at ~/.contribute-system/research/, append-only event log at ~/.contribute-system/log.jsonl. No database, no cloud calls. Use when the user asks about their PRs / issues / contributions, wants to find new work to take on, claim an issue, build/refresh a repo's dossier, or draft a Design Issue or PR. Trigger with "/contribute", "what's my PR status", "find a contribution", "claim issue X", "draft a Design Issue for Y", "refresh dossier for Z".
architectural-analysis
IncludedUser-triggered deep architectural analysis of a codebase or scoped subtree across eight modes — information architecture, data flow, integration points, UI surfaces, interaction patterns, data model, control flow, and failure modes. This skill should be used when the user asks to "diagram this codebase," "map the architecture," "show the data flow," "give me an ERD," "trace control flow," "find the integration points," "verify the layout pattern," "audit the UX architecture," or any similar request whose primary deliverable is mermaid diagrams plus cited reports under docs/architecture/. Dispatches haiku/sonnet sub-agents in parallel for per-mode exploration, then verifies every citation mechanically before any node lands in a diagram. Not for one-off prose explanations of code (use code-explanation) or for high-level system design from scratch (use system-design).
mcp
IncludedModel Context Protocol (MCP) server development and tool management. Languages: Python, TypeScript. Capabilities: build MCP servers, integrate external APIs, discover/execute MCP tools, manage multi-server configs, design agent-centric tools. Actions: create, build, integrate, discover, execute, configure MCP servers/tools. Keywords: MCP, Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP tool, stdio transport, SSE transport, tool discovery, resource provider, prompt template, external API integration, Gemini CLI MCP, Claude MCP, agent tools, tool execution, server config. Use when: building MCP servers, integrating external APIs as MCP tools, discovering available MCP tools, executing MCP capabilities, configuring multi-server setups, designing tools for AI agents.
react-native-skia
IncludedDesign, build, debug, and optimise high-polish animated graphics in React Native or Expo using @shopify/react-native-skia, Reanimated, and Gesture Handler. Use when the user wants canvas-driven UI, shaders, paths, rich text, image filters, sprite fields, Skottie, video frames, snapshots, web CanvasKit setup, or performance tuning for custom motion-heavy elements such as loaders, hero art, cards, charts, progress indicators, particle systems, or gesture-driven surfaces. Also use when the user asks for fluid, glow, glass, blob, parallax, 60fps/120fps, or GPU-friendly animated effects in React Native, even if they do not explicitly say "Skia". Do not use for ordinary form/layout work with standard views.
plaid
IncludedProduct Led AI Development — guides founders from idea to launched product. Six capabilities: Idea (discover a product idea), Validate (pressure-test the idea against fatal flaws, problem reality, competition, and 2-week MVP feasibility), Plan (vision intake + document generation), Design (translate image references into a design.md spec), Launch (go-to-market strategy), and Build (roadmap execution). Use when someone says "PLAID", "plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "product strategy", "plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "extract design tokens", "plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "launch playbook", "plaid build", "build the app", "start building", or "execute the roadmap".
nextjs-framer-motion-animations
IncludedAdds production-safe Motion for React or Framer Motion animations to Next.js apps, including reveal, hover and tap micro-interactions, whileInView, stagger, AnimatePresence, layout and layoutId transitions, reorder, scroll-linked UI, and lightweight route-content transitions. Use when the user asks to add, refactor, or debug Motion or Framer Motion in App Router or Pages Router codebases, especially around server/client boundaries, reduced motion, LazyMotion, bundle size, hydration, or route transitions. Avoid for GSAP-style timelines, WebGL or 3D scenes, heavy scroll storytelling, or CSS-only effects unless Motion is explicitly requested.