The Alignment Trap: we all struggle with it
What is holding most product organisations back from being more effective?
Over the past 20+ years of my career, I’ve talked to hundreds of product leaders and been involved with companies of all sizes as a consultant, advisor, employee or even as a customer.
I’ve always been astounded by the millions invested in technology, frameworks and consultants. They’ve implemented every tool in the book (Jira, Aha!, Productboard etc.) or adopted multiple frameworks (Agile, Lean, SCRUM, SAFe etc.).
And yet, the same familiar frustration haunts every one of them.
When I get asked the question: "What’s the one problem you see everywhere?"
The answer is nearly always the same.
It all centres around alignment.
Not a lack of smart people. Not a lack of budget. Not a lack of tools
It’s the simple brutal reality that different people, teams, and departments are moving in different directions. And all the effort, money, and brilliant minds in the world can't fix a team that is pulling in opposite directions.
The truth is, your favourite tools and frameworks aren't the solution. They are all just attempts to solve that one, singular problem.
They’re all trying to fix alignment.
The truth behind the tools you use
If we take a moment to reflect, we’ve collectively spent decades building a tool shed for product development, and each tool promises to be THE silver bullet.
But if we look closer at their core purpose, they’re all designed to solve different facets of the alignment challenge.
Jira, Asana, Linear etc. - These are the tools where all the work is living. They’re meant to provide clarity on what’s being worked on. They attempt to align the work being done;
Agile, Scrum etc. - Whether we’re talking about the various rituals such as standups or the principles of reducing documentations or complexity, these frameworks are trying to create alignment through habits and rituals;
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) - The enterprise-level version Agile and Scrum. It exists because organisations realised that organising multiple teams, across multiple products or units is much more complex than simply just being Agile. SAFe tries to solve the alignment challenge on more levels than just rituals and habits, but but with much added bureaucracy;
Design Thinking, Lean, Continuous Discovery etc. - These principles focus on building what customers actually want, not our assumptions of what they want. They incentivise us to talk to users and run experiments. They’re trying to align our understanding of the problem with the user’s reality;
RICE, ICE, MoSCoW etc. - Prioritization frameworks that aim to define the level of importance of the work and thus create an alignment on where it is most important to invest time, effort and resources;
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), Vision, Strategy etc. These are perhaps the most direct “attack” on the alignment problem. These “tools” try to give everyone in the organisation clarity on purpose and direction.
The missing link: Why tools fail
If all these tools, frameworks, and principles are trying to solve the same problem, why do so many organisations still struggle?
Because they treat the tools as the destination, not the vehicle.
They buy Jira and think they’ve fixed communication. They implement OKRs and believe they have alignment. They adopt SAFe and assume everyone is now on the same page.
But tools can't create alignment. People do.
The true work isn’t in the software or the framework. It’s in the messy, human process of communication, empathy, and leadership. It’s in asking the right questions, listening to the answers, and building trust.
As Jeff Gothelf argues in Lean UX, the focus should be on "the shared understanding" within the team. He writes, "We need to get to a shared understanding, not just a bunch of documents and specifications."
That’s what this work is really about. It's not about the perfect toolchain or the flawless framework. It’s about creating the conditions where people can come together, find common ground, and, yes, align.
In the past few years, I’ve realised and experimented with building high context teams that have a shared understanding. I’ve found that when we approach the alignment problem correctly, the tools and frameworks almost don’t matter, as they become an enabler rather than the solution by themselves.
The work I do with Product Leaders isn't about giving you a new tool. It’s about helping you understand the single problem all your tools are trying to solve, and then giving you the skills to own it, with or without a whiteboard full of sticky notes.
The Next Step
If you're a product leader struggling to get your teams aligned, let's talk. It’s not about buying another piece of software. It’s about solving the right challenges.
The problem isn't your tools. It’s that they aren't being used to solve the root cause. And that's something we can fix together.