Let's assume you know that a product team involves a group of people who are assigned specific tasks supporting a common purpose, in this case the development of a product.
A new team will experience behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group. Meaning: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.
In order to thrive they first and foremost need to feel safe. Safe enough to discuss, solve conflicts and fail. Guess what, it takes time! Unfortunatly, most companies assume that team will be highly productive and support each other almost from the start.
One reason for that expectation can be scientifically explained. At the beginning, team members want to learn from each other, they are willing to learn as much as possible and tend to help each other. The mistake is to believe that it is because they cooperate well, and have psycological safety. It is not, they are just focused, willing to learn and they don't know yet how far they can go, how hard they can push.
When they do, they will start challenge each other. Speak out. You will hear things like "This is not optimal, we could do it differently, why can't we do this or that differently...." and this generates frictions, tensions.
This is a phase where the team really need support. Once they come out of this situation they will be able to become more productive.
So be patient, communicate, inform and be supportive...be there for your team!
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