Working in a team
Last updated: Aug 9, 2025
This is a guide that helped me while working in engineering and product teams for B2B SaaS products. This post is highly opinionated and focused on SaaS product and engineering teams.
1. Understand your role
- Don’t just know your designation—understand your responsibilities.
- Be clear about expectations from your managers and peers, and strive to go above and beyond.
2. Obsess about the product
- Understand the industry; know what’s happening around you. Be aware of industry leaders.
- Understand your customers and their goals—what are they trying to achieve?
- What innovations are driving the industry? What are the new trends?
- Know what your competitors are doing.
3. Be open to learning new things
- Learn continuously. Don’t restrict your learning to your designation.
- Learn about product, marketing, industry, and design.
- You don’t have to be an expert in everything, but being aware of what’s happening in other fields will give you leverage.
4. Let go of your ego
- Be open-minded.
- Be willing to learn from everyone; talk to leaders and experts in their areas of work.
- Even if you think you’re the expert, remember there’s always someone better than you at something.
5. Talk to people from other departments; see how they work
- You will learn a thing or two from talking to others about work.
- Always be curious. Be inspired and inspire others.
6. Be a problem solver
- Don’t expect others to solve your problems for you. That won’t work in the long run.
- If you’re unable to arrive at a solution and want to discuss with someone else, make sure to share your findings and the solutions you’ve tried. That shows the effort you’ve put in before reaching out.
7. Don’t expect hand-holding or spoon-feeding
- Bring ideas to the table and take initiative.
- Make sure you grab every opportunity you get.
8. Be accountable
- If you commit to getting something done, get it done—without someone having to follow up.
9. Be kind to others
- Lend a helping hand when someone’s in need.
- Be nice to others, and there’s a good chance they’ll be nice to you.