Mar 19, 2025

Accountability

Messy teams don't mean broken teams.

They're just growing. Growth kicks off the “storming” phase - overlaps, confusion, delays. Everyone's working hard, but everything feels slow.

That's not a motivation problem. It's an ownership problem.

When no one's clearly accountable, things fall between the cracks. Work stalls. Friction builds. Blame starts to creep in. But assign clear ownership - name, scope, outcome - and everything changes. Now someone's driving. Now someone's finishing.

Ownership creates motion. Shared responsibility sounds nice, but it rarely works. When everyone owns something, no one owns anything.

So make it visible. Write it down. Who owns what. Why it matters. When it's due.

That's how work moves forward. Not with good intentions. With clear accountability.

Keep reading

Relevant posts

Feb 20, 2025

Results First

Your first responsibility as a manager is to deliver results. Not culture. Not vibes. Not endless check-ins. Results. Too many new managers fall in love with th...

About Max Antonov
I'm a father of three from Sydney, a Product Director and a Product Coach. I write about product management and run the Product Manager community.

Get the monthly digest

Best posts on product, strategy and AI. One email a month.