History of Top-Down Engineering and/or Product Management

Rebuilding Trust and Ownership after a Command-and-Control Culture

If you’re stepping into an R&D leadership role and inheriting a team from a “top-down” predecessor, you’re likely facing a significant cultural obstacle.

In this kind of environment, the prior executive leader made most — or all — of the big decisions about what to prioritize. They may have relied heavily on their own instincts and personal knowledge of the team’s capacity, but didn’t actively involve other R&D leaders or cross-functional partners in the decision-making process.

At first glance, it might seem like this was a rudimentary version of a Plan of Record. But in practice, it often left the team with no real sense of ownership — just a list of mandates to execute. The result? A pervasive “best efforts” mindset where teams aim to do their best but don’t feel accountable for outcomes.

What Should You Do?

This is a situation where you can’t start with the PoR right away — at least not successfully. Here’s where to begin instead:

1. Start with the Pre-Requisites.
   The first job is not to implement the PoR. It’s to build the foundation that will allow it to work. That means:

   • Building a trust-based culture where people feel psychologically safe to speak up.

   • Creating clear goals that everyone can align around.

   • Re-establishing a customer-centric framework that connects day-to-day work to customer outcomes.

   • Structuring your teams so they are cross-functional and empowered to deliver on their objectives.

2. These four pre-requisites must be in place before you ask your team to embrace the mindset shift required by a PoR.

3. Share your vision of the PoR early — but don’t rush it.
   Be transparent about where you’re going and why the PoR will help. But make it clear that you’re not imposing a new process from above — you’re building the right culture and structure so the process can thrive. Invite input and discussion.

4. Demonstrate shared decision-making.
   The best way to break a top-down culture is to model a different way of operating. Engage your product and engineering leads in shaping the roadmap. Make it safe for them to disagree and raise concerns. Over time, shift prioritization authority to the teams, supported by the PoR framework.

5. Expect progress to be slow — and celebrate milestones.
   Change management in this kind of culture won’t happen overnight. Look for signs of increasing engagement, stronger collaboration, and growing confidence. Celebrate those moments. They’re evidence that your team is taking ownership and moving to more of a commitment mindset.

Up Next: Sometimes the challenge isn’t the culture — it’s the complexity. In the next post, we’ll look at what to do when leaders or stakeholders struggle to engage with the level of detail the PoR requires.