How Tonal approaches alignment and prioritization
Staff Product Manager, Zach Lebovics, shares insights into his team’s key to success.
Rachel Ding
Solutions Architect at Coda
How Tonal approaches alignment and prioritization
By Rachel Ding
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Every product manager has to learn the art of juggling multiple lines of communication across horizontal partners and vertical altitudes to keep their teams and executives aligned toward a unified objective. And as collaboration points increase, so does the risk for misalignment. When Zach Lebovics first joined product at Tonal—the team behind the world's smartest home gym—he got a crash course in team alignment challenges. In his first months at Tonal, he called a meeting with his team. There was a jam-packed agenda, and his manager was in the room, and Zach felt good after leaving the meeting. But, Zach says:
“My manager Slacked me, and he said, ‘Hey, how do you think that meeting went?’ And I’m like, ‘Great. We made it through all of the agenda items.’ And his response, I remember to this day, was ‘We made it through all of your agenda items. What about the team’s agenda items?’”
Takeaways:
- Team alignment is crucial for effective collaboration and productivity. Misalignment can lead to delays, productivity issues, and decreased morale. Coda serves as an alignment enforcer, helping teams centralize information and collaborate effectively.
- Flexibility and customization are key to success. Zach’s team hub doc evolved over time based on feedback and the unique requirements of different teams. Coda’s ability to connect different tools, like Jira, through two-way sync, enhanced the team’s productivity and reduced the risk of miscommunication.
- Prioritizing user value leads to better product experiences and business success. While business value is important, starting with user value and then aligning it with business impact can result in more meaningful and successful product development.
Tell me about yourself and your role.
Outside of work, I play hockey and golf, and I’m a weightlifter. I’m a staff product manager at Tonal, specifically focused on the core workout experience. Tonal is an all-in-one strength training device that mounts on your wall and is powered by magnetic resistance. The device allows users to perform various gym exercises. Tonal has engaged with athletes like LeBron and Michelle Wie, recognizing the value of the device for strength training and rotational sports. We offer workout content similar to Peloton, with videos filmed in-house that users can follow in real time.What do you love about your role?
I’m a little bit of a data nerd, so I get excited about how much data we collect. I find the amount of data collected by Tonal fascinating and enjoy using it to help members progress and understand their performance. For example, Tonal can track factors like velocity and symmetry during workouts, providing personalized recommendations to improve performance. One thing that is really special about Tonal is the tangible results I see, with members sharing inspiring stories of illness prevention and newfound confidence.What is your philosophy as a product manager?
I would say two philosophies come to mind. Firstly, I believe in product managing the process itself, constantly assessing and improving to minimize risks and frustrations. I would encourage others to think about what they want to excel at and assess how their process may hinder their goals. Secondly, I aim to maximize the overlap between business value and user value in my role as product manager. It’s also really important to consider the impact on end consumers and incorporate user value into decision-making processes.What tools were your team using before Coda?
When I first joined Tonal, we were relying on Google Docs, Confluence, spreadsheets, Looker, and decks for different purposes. There was a lack of centralization and a struggle to elicit feedback and have productive conversations. With Coda, I saw the opportunity to create a centralized team hub that would improve alignment and communication.When did you know it was time to make the switch?
The breaking point was following a meeting that we had during my first few months at Tonal. My manager bluntly pointed out that the meeting focused on my agenda, and not that of the team.What was the moment you realized Coda’s different workflows could adapt to for your specific needs?
When I first joined Tonal, I was focused on helping the content team build a roadmap but there are so many other stakeholders and teams within the process. I created one giant roadmap blueprint, which basically looked like a paint-by-numbers—it was fickle, but it stood. But then we missed a deadline and I had to adapt and adjust the spreadsheet and everything fell apart—I realized that my change wasn’t properly communicated to the person two streams down. But Coda’s seamless interconnectedness and flexibility allowed me to create a table with multiple views tailored to different teams. This realization solidified my belief in the power of Coda.Were there business costs involved in creating a team hub on Coda?
When thinking about the business costs, it’s really associated with alignment, specifically the cost of misalignment. Misalignment can lead to delayed projects and decreased productivity, which can be quantified in terms of missed opportunities and decreased employee engagement. Coda, as an alignment tool, improves productivity and the well-being of employees.What’s your favorite part of the doc you built?
My favorite part of the doc is the basic structure for running a meeting. However, I’m particularly impressed with Coda’s new two-way sync feature, specifically with Jira. We had this gap between the engineering team and the product team and one of the things that I always had trouble with was that we would create epics within Jira and then within Coda, and we would say, “It’s ready for development now.” But we would either forget to or just overlook the fact that we had to do that as well within Jira. Now, we can seamlessly update and sync information between Coda and Jira—that’s been just a huge, huge unlock.How does Coda affect the team’s sentiment?
Our standup process was adding a sentiment tracker before we asked people for updates. What are their goals for the week? What did they accomplish? But I didn’t feel like I was getting a good pulse on how the team was feeling. So I added this one simple smiley rating scale column where you drop a smiley: are you one smiley or are you five smileys? It sounds rudimentary and maybe even juvenile, but it was probably the one most pivotal thing that I did. I could quickly assess the overall sentiment of the team and identify individuals who may need additional support.How would you pitch an engineer to use Coda and Jira together?
I think that it’s very normal to have a knee-jerk reaction to the addition of any tool to your suite. I would tell them that two-way sync between Coda and Jira will make their job way easier, reduce the risk of outdated or missed information, and increase productivity. The way that I would pitch it is Coda is the tool. You don’t have to worry about other tools, and I think a lot of tools do great jobs, but there’s so much flexibility in what Coda can do that I personally have found that it’s replaced a lot of my tools and consolidated a lot of my work.Bring your teams, tools, and tactics under one roof.
With Coda, Zach and his team have the tools and capabilities they need to ensure team alignment, streamline processes, and drive successful product development. And their team hub centralizes information and simplifies the feedback loop to enhance productivity and reduce miscommunication. Coda’s ability to connect different tools and enhance productivity is a testament to its effectiveness.Related posts
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