Your Team Might Be Doing All the Right Things for the Wrong Reasons
A gut-check for leaders who think “on time” means “on track.”
Early in my career, I thought if a team hit their deadlines, showed up to standups, and shipped on time, everything was good.
We were executing.
Velocity charts looked nice.
Burndown graphs made my PM happy.
Sprint retros had a few “opportunities to improve” but mostly ended with high-fives.
And yet…
We were missing the mark.
Users weren’t thrilled.
Adoption lagged.
Features we spent weeks building barely moved the needle.
And at first, I didn’t get it.
How could everything look right—but feel so off?
Then it hit me:
We weren’t owning the product.
We were just writing the code.
The Execution Trap
Here’s how the execution trap sneaks up on good teams:
You start focusing on process over purpose.
You optimize for speed over solving real problems.
You celebrate shipping… without asking if it mattered.
And it’s not because your team doesn’t care.
It’s because no one designed the environment to reward ownership.
Execution is easier to measure.
Ownership is harder to see—but it’s the difference between surviving and building something great.
How to Spot the Difference
If you’re not sure where your team stands, start here:
✅ Teams That Execute...
– Pull tickets
– Hit sprint goals
– Check the box and move on
– Wait for specs instead of questioning them
– Say “that’s not my job”
– Blame “the process” when things go sideways
🟢 Teams That Own...
– Start with “What problem are we solving?”
– Speak up when something doesn’t make sense
– Fix what’s broken—even if it wasn’t assigned
– Care about the outcome, not just the output
– Think about the user, not just the ticket
– Say “we missed the mark” instead of “I did my part”
Why This Matters (More Than Ever)
In the age of AI, speed is a commodity.
Anyone can ship faster now.
What you can’t automate is judgment.
What you can’t shortcut is ownership.
The teams that win aren't the ones who crank through backlogs the fastest.
They’re the ones who think critically, act like owners, and care about what happens after the code goes live.
If you’re leading a team—or building one—you can’t settle for execution.
You have to build a system where ownership is the baseline.
Because shipping features doesn’t win markets anymore.
Solving real problems does.
Ownership Isn’t a Process. It’s a Standard.
Here’s the mistake I see leadership teams make all the time:
They assume ownership will happen if they just follow Agile perfectly.
They roll out new templates.
They add more ceremonies.
They launch another internal campaign about “cross-functional collaboration.”
And then they wonder why nothing changes.
Here’s the truth no one likes to say out loud:
You can follow the Agile playbook perfectly and still ship a product no one believes in.
Ownership isn’t a process you install.
It’s a culture you build.
It’s a standard you enforce.
It’s modeled by leadership—or it’s dead on arrival.
If You Want More Ownership, Start Here
🟢 Talk about outcomes, not just deadlines.
Ask: What problem are we solving? How will we know if it worked?
🟢 Give engineers product context—not just tickets.
Involve them early. Let them help shape the solution, not just build it.
🟢 Make feedback loops tighter.
Celebrate impact, not just output. Share customer wins (and losses) with the whole team.
🟢 Model it at the top.
If leadership blames others, hides mistakes, or hoards decisions—you’ll never build ownership downstream.
Final Thought
If you want a team that owns outcomes—not just output—you can’t rely on process to save you.
You have to build the system differently.
You have to lead differently.
Because when everyone’s on the product team...
When engineers, PMs, designers, and leadership care about the outcome together...
That’s when products get better.
Teams move faster.
And users actually feel the difference.
📗 This is pulled from one of the drafts...
This article is pulled straight from a draft of Product Driven—the book I’m writing for engineers, CTOs, and founders who want to build software that actually solves real problems.
Will this chapter make the final cut? Who knows.
But if you want the full playbook on building teams that own outcomes—not just ship tickets— you’re going to want the book when it drops.
👉 Get on the waitlist here: productdriven.com/book
If you’re still measuring success in story points, you’re gonna need this book more than you think.