Cross-team process management is a complex and often frustrating challenge for organizations.
In a series of 13 interviews, professionals from various industries in roles including product managers, sales leaders & onboarding specialists shared their insights into these challenges and offered ideas for improvement.
The common thread across these interviews is the struggle to manage processes that span multiple teams, tools, and organizational structures.
Key Challenges in Cross-Team Processes
- Unclear Ownership and Responsibility: Many organizations struggle with undefined roles, leading to confusion about who is responsible for specific tasks. This lack of clarity slows decision-making and impacts productivity. One interviewee noted that even with assigned Jira tickets, the broader ownership of processes remains unclear, causing delays and confusion
- Siloed Information and Handover Issues: Data and updates are often stored in various tools like Slack, Jira, and Confluence, making it hard for teams to track progress and communicate efficiently. Information gets lost between teams, leading to delays and errors, especially during customer onboarding
- Over-Reliance on Multiple Tools: Using too many tools that don’t integrate well can overwhelm teams. Many professionals noted that switching between platforms like SalesForce and Jira led to redundant work and errors. The tools lacked the necessary synchronization to ensure smooth workflows across departments
- Complex Onboarding for Large Clients: Larger clients require more customized solutions, which involve more teams—sales, legal, compliance, and tech. This complexity can bog down the process as each team works on different timelines, making coordination difficult and slowing down the onboarding process
- Manual Data Management: Many processes still rely on manual data collection, particularly during customer onboarding. Back-and-forth exchanges with customers delay progress, especially when critical information is missing
Solutions for Improving Cross-Team Processes
- Centralized Process Management: A recurring suggestion was the implementation of centralized tools that could manage and track customer onboarding and workflows more efficiently. Automation of simple tasks, such as form generation and task updates, could significantly reduce manual effort and improve accountability
- Improved Tool Integration: Several interviewees recommended improving the integration between tools like SalesForce, Jira, and Slack. This would streamline communication and data access, reducing redundancy and making workflows more efficient. Enhanced data visualization tools were also mentioned as a way to help teams access key insights without needing technical support
- Automating Routine Tasks: Automating repetitive tasks—such as data handovers — was a popular suggestion. This would allow teams to focus on more critical work, such as customer relationship management and strategy
- Standardized Communication Methods: Implementing standard processes like the RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) model would clarify roles during onboarding and process execution. This would reduce confusion, especially in complex cross-functional tasks, by ensuring that each team understands their responsibilities
- Process Monitoring Dashboards: Another valuable suggestion was to create dashboards that provide real-time visibility into the progress of customer onboarding and other processes. Such tools would help teams stay on track and immediately identify any bottlenecks
- Cross-Team Process Standardization: Standardizing the process flow across teams, with a clear map of each step, could help reduce misunderstandings and ensure everyone knows what their colleagues are working on. This approach could minimize delays caused by miscommunication or lack of information
In conclusion, managing cross-team processes in B2B organizations can be challenging, but solutions like centralizing workflows, improving communication, and automating tasks can help teams work more smoothly and efficiently.
ProcessPlot addresses these challenges by providing a platform that simplifies workflows, assigns clear responsibilities, and integrates with your current tools.
Sign up for the Alpha today and see how ProcessPlot can improve your team’s process management.