Do you know what kills innovation? Meetings with no critical opinions. The ones where most of the time is spent assessing the room and trying to read between the lines. *groan*

But I’m sure you’ve also been in the incredible meetings! The ones where ideas are flowing and opinions are being heard. I want to help you have more of these meetings.

This week we're going to look at the idea of Groupthink and a 4-step project to maximise the important collaboration between Product and Customer Onboarding teams.

Ready?

🧠 The Theory: Groupthink

In 1971, social psychologist Irving Janis introduced the concept of "groupthink." He was studying situations where groups of smart people made poor decisions. Groupthink happens when the desire for everyone in the group to agree becomes more important than carefully evaluating ideas.

This is where team cohesion can inadvertently lead to pressure to conform and go along with what seems to be the majority opinion. And that can lead group members to suppress doubts or leave out important information that goes against the perceived consensus. This groupthink mentality ultimately prevents the group from making well-rounded, high-quality decisions.

SaaS VP, Oscar Ganuza outlines how this can look in the SaaS workplace by highlighting how the desire for consensus turns “constructive debates into silos of repeated thoughts.”

Groupthink can be subtle. Even intelligent and well-intentioned groups can fall prey to it. Don’t worry, it can happen to the best of us. 😅

👀 The Example: Pixar

Imagine a room full of Pixar's best. Directors, animators, and writers who are all meeting to watch an early cut of a new movie. This is what Pixar’s Braintrust looks like in action.

The role of the group is to give brutally honest feedback and dissect the story, the characters, and the jokes. There's no hierarchy. Just a group of passionate colleagues pushing each other to make the film the best it can be. The movie always sucks to begin with and the Braintrust’s job is to “remove the suck”.

This format really creates healthy debate and prevents the final product from any potential flaws. By creating the Braintrust, Pixar actively rejects the idea of groupthink in order to achieve the best results.

🧪 The Project: Create Your Own BrainTrust

We’re going to create a feedback loop to bridge the gap between Customer Onboarding and Product teams. Here's how:

Step 1: Assemble Your A-Team

Gather a cross functional group of up to 6 legendary people. Diversity matters. Each member brings a unique lens to the table. It challenges assumptions and identifies blind spots that groupthink can create.

• Customer Onboarding Managers: The OGs. They understand the detail in the onboarding journey and user pain points.

• Product Managers: They champion the product vision day in day out.

• Designers: They are all about that smooth and delightful user experience.

• Bonus member - Customer Advocate: The truth sayers and features seekers. Be careful here. If you don’t have an enthusiastic loyal customer in mind, try implementing an empty chair rule in meetings to represent the customer.

Step 2: Prep Like Pixar

Set a cadence for your meetings. Schedule bi-weekly or monthly.

Create a manifesto that you all agree on. It should encompass your goals, ground rules, and guidelines to ensure respect. Nothing flashy, just make it clear.

Create an agenda to follow at each meeting. You don’t want the meeting to be derailed. It can be as easy as some bullet points but make sure you have one. Nominate someone to keep everything on track in each meeting. Rotate this person each meeting.

Come prepared. If no one provides new knowledge, data, or insight, then you are missing out on valuable progress.

Step 3: Use Radical Candor

In each meeting, encourage the team to challenge the status quo. This is a space for open discussion and to challenge assumptions.

Don't be afraid to say:

Create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing honest feedback, even if it differs from the perceived norm. Psychological safety is key to making progress. Care personally while challenging directly.

Leave those egos at the door, there’s no room for them here! Remember, there is no hierarchy in Pixar’s Braintrust.

Step 4: Progress Makes Perfect

Take notes. Nominate someone and rotate it each meeting… we don’t want any grumpy gills here. Use note taking software. Better yet, use AI! However you do it, just make sure you are tracking the progress.

Before each meeting ends, define concrete steps for both product and onboarding improvements. You need to implement real-world changes to see progress.

There will be action points to be completed between meetings. Do them. No excuses. 🤷‍♀️

When you start seeing results, shout it from the rooftops! Share the decisions and outcomes from your Braintrust with the wider company.

You may inspire a Braintrust to pop up between other teams. Then you’d really be the talk of the office. Permission to strut - granted.

The Analysis: Remove The Suck

Collaborating to improve the user experience, like Pixar does, is a creative way to overcome groupthink and remove silos within SaaS teams. The idea is to “remove the suck” by challenging directly and iterating for the best outcome possible.

So, what should you expect from doing this project?

• Easier collaboration between teams

• Communication skills improve across the board

• Swifter iterations of the customer onboarding experience

• Long term impacts on customer satisfaction and retention

I’ll leave you with some life lessons from Edna Mode.

See you next Thursday.

👀 Find me on LinkedIn here.

Tell me your thoughts, questions, suggestions, or outcomes from your experiments.

Additional reading for bonus points: Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull (Co-founder of Pixar)