I Prefer Working in “Lowercase P product teams"

When speaking, sometimes all you need to communicate properly is tell the listener if a word you are using is a proper noun or not. If you don’t, they may misunderstand you.

One example of this method I use often is “lowercase p, product” to denote a team that makes digital products, not a team of Product Managers. Here’s two versions of a phrase that could have very different meetings to a non-product manager audience:

“The Product Team revised its roadmap.”

“The product team revised its roadmap.”

The first could mean only the Product Managers worked on the roadmap, which is not how cross-functional integrated teams should work. All job families within the product team should create the roadmap together.

The second version is what you intended, but verbally sounds the same.

This is where “lowercase P, product” is handy to share your true intent with the listener.

Try this instead:

“The lower-case P product team revised its roadmap.”

It’s a small thing, but can go a long way in sharing your true intent and not causing confusion, or worst case, a need for damage control.