Scaling the product review process

In scaling organizations, fostering effective collaboration and conducting meaningful product reviews become challenging as complexity increases, often leading to a focus on coordination rather than value creation. Product reviews are pivotal working sessions where teams assess progress and align on future steps, but they become difficult to manage as organizations grow. Challenges include coordinating attendance, maintaining transparency, and ensuring consistency across multiple teams. Common pitfalls include overcomplicating processes and failing to engage stakeholders. To address these, strategies such as consolidating reviews by audience, sharing agendas in advance, focusing on both outputs and outcomes, and sending out release notes can enhance engagement and value. Additionally, introducing weekly design critique sessions to address inconsistencies has proven beneficial. The key is to keep reviews simple and valuable, resisting the urge to overcomplicate, and prioritizing alignment and value creation over rigid adherence to processes.