How to align Product, Sales, and Engineering (The 'Triad')

In dysfunctional companies, Engineering hates Sales("They sell vaporware") and Sales hates Engineering("They are always late").In world- class companies, they are one team: The Revenue Team.

The Symptom: The "Throw it over the wall" Culture

Product writes a spec.Engineering builds it.Sales tries to sell it.Support tries to fix it.

This waterfall approach fails because there is no feedback loop.Sales knows what customers actually want to buy, but they are brought in too late.

The Solution: The Triad Pod

For every major product line, you need a "Triad" of leaders who meet weekly:

Tech Lead(Engineering): "Can we build it?" & "How long will it take?"
Product Manager(Product): "Should we build it?" & "Does it solve the problem?"
Product Marketing Manager(Sales / GTM): "Can we sell it?" & "How much will they pay?"

Alignment Mechanism 1: Shared Metrics

Engineers usually care about "Uptime" and "Velocity." Sales cares about "Quotas."

The Fix: Give Engineers a "Revenue Goal." If the new feature drives $1M in ARR, the engineering team gets a celebration. Conversely, give Sales a "Technical Debt" quota (they must accept that 20% of the roadmap is maintenance).

Alignment Mechanism 2: The "Deal Desk" Engineering Review

Sales Reps should not be allowed to promise features in a contract without Engineering approval.This sounds like a bottleneck, but it prevents "Sales-Driven Development" where the roadmap is hijacked by one loud customer.

Create a simple "Deal Desk" process: "If the deal is>$50k and requires a new feature, the Engineering Lead must sign off within 24 hours."

Conflict Resolution: "Disagree and Commit"

The Triad will fight.That is good.Product wants perfect UX; Engineering wants clean code; Sales wants it yesterday.

The goal is not consensus(which is slow); the goal is commitment.Once the distinct perspective is heard, the decision maker(usually the PM) makes the call, and everyone executes.

Conclusion

When Product, Sales, and Engineering are aligned, you don't just ship code; you ship value. Building the "Triad" is the highest leverage activity for any leader.