In partnership with
👋 Hey friends!
I spent 12 months getting 11 teams to migrate their features onto a shared platform.
No one reported to me. Every team had competing priorities. I had influence, not authority.
We migrated 17 of 27 features.
The teams who haven’t migrated yet? They’re now asking when they can.
Here’s what I learned about cross-team alignment when you have zero formal power:
Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.
Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.
Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.
The Problem (And Why It Was Hard)
HubSpot has 27 “Analyze Tabs” scattered across Marketing, Sales, and Service.
Each team built their own reporting surface. Zero consistency. Different tech stacks. Different UX patterns.
Customers were confused. “Why does the Sales Analytics tab work differently from the Marketing one?”
The obvious solution: Migrate them all onto a shared platform.
The obvious problem: No single person owned all 27.
They belonged to different product groups, different roadmaps, different priorities. And I was a PM with exactly zero direct reports outside my own team.
What I Tried First (That Didn’t Work)
Attempt #1: The Big Vision Meeting
I scheduled a meeting with representatives from all the teams. Presented the grand vision. Showed the benefits. Asked for commitment.
Result: Polite nods. “This sounds great, but we have other priorities.”
Translation: “Not doing this.”
Attempt #2: Building the Perfect Plan
Maybe they needed more detail? I built a comprehensive migration plan. Timelines. Resource requirements. Technical specs.
Result: “This looks great, send it over.”
Then… crickets.
Attempt #3: Executive Pressure
Maybe they needed leadership buy-in?
I got execs to say “this is important.”
Result: Moved up the priority list from “never” to “someday.” Still not happening.
The pattern: I was trying to convince everyone at once. And it wasn’t working.
With KeepCart or Without It — See the Margin Difference
Every checkout leak costs you. KeepCart shows exactly how coupon extensions quietly shrink your revenue — and how blocking them can recover hundreds per order. Your profit margin deserves a before-and-after moment.
Top brands like Bucketlisters and Quince have already seen the difference.
What Actually Worked
1. Find Your Early Adopters (The Teams in Pain)
I stopped trying to convince all of the teams and focused on finding 3 teams with two qualities:
✅ Actively hurting from maintaining their own implementation
✅ Least attached to their current solution
For me, that was:
A team drowning in tech debt from their custom build
A team who’d just lost the engineer who built their tab (no one knew how it worked)
A team launching a new hub who didn’t want to build from scratch
I didn’t pitch the vision.
I asked: “What’s painful about your current setup?”
Then I listened.
Turns out:
They were spending big parts of their capacity just maintaining their reporting surface
Every platform update meant updating their code
They were getting customer complaints about inconsistency
They wanted to focus on their actual product, not maintaining a reporting UI
The shift: From “here’s why you should migrate” to “here’s how this solves your specific pain.”
2. Show, Don’t Tell (Make The Future Tangible)
I didn’t schedule another meeting to explain the vision.
I built it.
What I did:
Took one team’s Analyze Tab
Migrated their actual content to the new platform
Set up a staging environment they could click through
Showed them side-by-side: old vs. new
The conversation changed:
Before: “This sounds interesting in theory…”
After: “Oh. This already works. When can we do this?”
What made it real:
They could see their actual reports in the new UI
They could click through real workflows
They could compare maintenance burden (their code vs. our shared platform)
It wasn’t theoretical anymore
One team lead literally said: “Wait, you’re telling me we can delete all our custom code and just use this?”
Yes. That’s exactly what I’m telling you.
Unlock ChatGPT’s Full Power at Work
ChatGPT is transforming productivity, but most teams miss its true potential. Subscribe to Mindstream for free and access 5 expert-built resources packed with prompts, workflows, and practical strategies for 2025.
Whether you're crafting content, managing projects, or automating work, this kit helps you save time and get better results every week.
3. Make Joining Easier Than Staying (The Path of Least Resistance)
Here’s what I learned: People don’t resist change because they hate your idea. They resist it because change is work.
So I removed the work.
What we offered:
✅ We’ll do the migration (they just review)
✅ We’ll handle rollout communications
✅ We’ll maintain it going forward (they delete their code)
✅ We’ll handle customer support for the new experience
The equation became obvious:
Current state:
Maintain custom code
Handle bugs
Update when platform changes
Field customer questions
Estimated effort: 20% of sprint capacity ongoing
New state:
Review migration (one-time, 2-3 hours)
Delete old code
We handle everything else
Estimated effort: 0% ongoing
When you frame it like that, the decision makes itself.
The question I asked: “What friction am I asking them to absorb?”
Then I absorbed it myself.
4. Let Momentum Build Itself (Early Wins Create FOMO)
After the first 3 migrations:
✅ Customers gave positive feedback on the new experience
✅ Teams saw their reports performing better (better load times, more features)
✅ Leadership noticed the consistency improvements
✅ Other teams started asking: “When can we migrate?”
I didn’t pitch the remaining teams. The early wins did.
A PM from a team I hadn’t even talked to Slacked me: “Hey, I saw [Team X] migrated their Analyze Tab. Can you help us do ours?”
This is the moment you know you’ve won: When people start asking to join instead of you asking them to join.
The Results (Because Numbers Matter)
What we shipped:
63%) Analyze Tabs migrated
What teams got:
Deleted thousands of lines of custom code
Zero ongoing maintenance burden
Better and more consistent UX for their customers
More time to focus on their actual product
What I learned:
Cross-team alignment isn’t about authority
t’s about making the right choice the easy choice
Try This This Week
If you have a cross-team project that’s stuck:
Ask yourself:
Am I trying to convince everyone at once? (Stop. Pick 1-2.)
Have I shown them what “done” looks like? (Not described—shown.)
Am I asking them to do work I could do myself? (Do it yourself.)
Am I letting early wins create demand? (Or am I still pushing?)
One tactical thing to try:
Pick your most painful stakeholder relationship. The one where alignment feels impossible.
This week, ask them: “What’s broken for you right now?”
Not: “Will you support my initiative?”
Just: “What’s painful?”
Then listen.
You might find the path to alignment isn’t convincing them you’re right. It’s solving a problem they already have.
What I’m Working On Right Now
Right now I’m applying this same approach to a project with a big migration. Lots of teams, no clear owner, everyone has opinions.
So I’m starting small. Finding the teams in pain. Building something they can touch.
We’ll see if it works.
Let me know what you’re aligning (or trying to align) this week.
-Stef
📬 Other Newsletters You Might Like
If you like Stef the PM, here are a few other reads worth checking out:
→ The Byte – Fast, punchy tech and AI news
→ Innovate Disrupt or Die – Strategic insights on innovation and disruption
→ Marketing Alec – AI-powered marketing strategies
→ Practical Marketing – No-BS marketing tactics that work
→ Two Dads in Tech – Honest conversations about tech careers and life
→ Cooking Agile – Agile practices made practical
→ Seedradar AI – Startup and AI trends to watch
→ The Centaur – Stay irreplaceable in the age of AI