Practice : Dev-Product Pairing

Purpose and Strategic Importance

Dev-Product Pairing is the intentional collaboration between software engineers and product managers during the design, discovery, and delivery phases of work. This practice helps bridge gaps in understanding, ensures product decisions are technically informed, and empowers engineers to contribute to business outcomes.

When engineers and product managers work as true partners, teams deliver more valuable, feasible, and usable solutions - reducing rework, increasing speed to value, and building shared ownership across disciplines.

Description of the Practice

  • Engineers and product managers pair regularly - through discovery sessions, backlog grooming, user story refinement, and real-time ideation.
  • Developers gain early visibility into product goals and context, while product managers gain technical feasibility and impact insights.
  • Pairing is informal but structured, often involving shared documents, whiteboards, or collaborative tools.
  • May extend to design and user research collaboration with triads (Dev–Product–Design).

How to Practise It (Playbook)

1. Getting Started

  • Schedule regular pairing time during backlog refinement, sprint planning, or story shaping.
  • Use working sessions to explore assumptions, break down features, and define success criteria.
  • Ask: “What problem are we solving?” and “What’s the simplest way to learn?”
  • Capture outcomes as user stories, decision records, or experiments.

2. Scaling and Maturing

  • Encourage continuous dialogue during sprints - not just during ceremonies.
  • Involve engineers early in product discovery, user research, and roadmap discussions.
  • Pair on prototypes or technical spikes to assess feasibility.
  • Rotate pairings or embed engineers in product rituals (and vice versa).
  • Create rituals for documenting decisions, trade-offs, and learning.

3. Team Behaviours to Encourage

  • Challenge ideas collaboratively - product and engineering are peers.
  • Focus on outcomes over outputs - what value are we creating for users?
  • Respect each other’s domain expertise and listen actively.
  • Build trust through curiosity, transparency, and regular feedback loops.

4. Watch Out For…

  • Late-stage handoffs that prevent engineers from influencing decisions.
  • Power imbalances where one voice dominates pairing sessions.
  • Overemphasis on delivery without understanding user needs.
  • Assuming alignment without frequent, honest conversation.

5. Signals of Success

  • Engineers and PMs co-create solutions, not just hand off requirements.
  • Features are better scoped, with fewer surprises during implementation.
  • Technical feasibility and product value are balanced early.
  • Backlog items are richer, clearer, and more impact-focused.
  • Team members feel mutual trust, influence, and shared ownership.