When I first joined Webflow we were so small that Jiaona Zhang, our product leader, reviewed everything. However, as we got bigger, added more directors, and had projects moving very quickly, that process became untenable. We needed to create a raised view system at the pillar level.

At first we wanted a creative streamlined way that JZ could still get her eyes on things asynchronously, but we learned that our teams wanted live reviews with leaders. That was the impetus for this live weekly review session to pause and have a real conversation about any critical decisions that need to be made.

When we initially brought in this new process we needed to gain the teams buy-in and answer questions like "what would I bring to a review?" and "if it is already in a channel, what more could be needed?"

For these reviews we like people to do as little prep as possible! We always encourage them to come and present the artifact they have, not a deck specifically for this meeting. You’re welcome to come with your product brief, your design file or just your text spec. This is meant to be a space to gather input.

A good review often happens when someone comes with a very targeted request for feedback or problem to work through.

That can sound like:
- “We roadmapped towards meeting this deadline to hit this OKR, or launch by this conference, or to support the sales team in this way, but we aren't going to make that deadline.”
- “We're running into a technical roadblock.”
- “We're at a point where we want to finalize our designs, but want cross-functional input from teams who work closer to the customers.”

Then the team works through what to do.

We try to keep this meeting to 10 or fewer people across many functions. The three directors from engineering, product and design are always there. Sometimes we will have the researcher or the product marketer from the presenting working group, as well as members of our community and education team. When you’re making key decisions, it’s helpful to have them together.

Escalations are not always bad, they happen. For example, sometimes you get into the work and realize it's not as technically feasible as you'd anticipated, so you'd take it to your pillar leads where a plan of action can be created.

Our teams have enjoyed the confidence these meetings have offered, and the ways in which our work has gone smoother because of them.

Through this process I’ve learned that each pillar is going to implement these in slightly different ways, and that's okay. They have different cultures, sizes, scopes, and types of features they're building. Because of this, you have to be comfortable with setting the framework and letting teams make it their own from the start.

For example, some pillars have all of their people attend meetings, even just as observers, while others send only the applicable participants. Some pillars want to show more of their work than others

We understand that when we set a process it is our job to help each team make it their own.

Jiaona Zhang

Nora Danskey

We implemented these reviews to ensure early alignment and unblock teams. These meetings have helped us move noticeably faster!

. The purpose of this meeting is to improve our ability to execute our quarterly plans through shared context and alignment. Since the beginning of 2022, we’ve evolved our organization around pillars and have quickly grown our talented team across functions. It’s become even more important that we ensure we’re all headed in the same direction and are proactively clearing a path for teams to build amazing products. This should complement our existing feature development process and serve the team's 

- Align strategic direction across pillars/teams and prevent unnecessary project churn

- Ensure teams operate with high confidence and high conviction - Increase execution velocity by fostering high context decision making

- Pillar Leads will host a synchronous Pillar Product Review every week for teams to sign up with a pre-set agenda. This meeting is optional and teams are welcome to sign up as often as deemed valuable to advance our mission.

- Teams are expected to prepare topics with relevant content to aid in the discussion

- Eg PMs may bring briefs, while PD and Eng may bring prototypes or demos - Leads provide feedback and teams commit to the next steps

- Reviews will be recorded so you can watch it at a time that works better for you. Outcomes are shared on public channels for visibility.

- Capabilities - #capabilities-pillar-review

- Team Success - #team-success-pillar-review

- Pillar Leads across Eng, Product & Design

- Teams: Team PMs, PDs, EMs, Eng, User Research, Data Insights - XFN PMM, GTM (where applicable)

- PMs invite relevant xfn team members to attend

- PMs send out pre-reads 24-hours in advance with set agenda topics - Leads and team conduct the review

- ProductOps takes notes and summarizes next steps before meeting adjourns

- PMs publish summary of meeting notes to #product-review channel for visibility - PDs, EMs, etc cross-post to functional and team channels for visibility as needed

- Come with a recommendation with rationale

- Show the work! We have prefer demos, data and visuals to drive discussion - Be proactive about closing communication loops so we can move fast

Pillar Reviews at Webflow

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