Master the word combinations used when product and engineering teams align on goals and priorities in English. These collocations appear in cross-functional meetings, planning docs, and quarterly reviews.
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The PM and the tech lead met weekly to ___ alignment on priorities and ensure the roadmap reflected engineering capacity.
We 'maintain alignment' in cross-functional team language. 'Maintain' means to keep something consistently over time: maintain alignment, maintain focus, maintain momentum. 'Ensure alignment' is also correct and often used in more formal communication. 'Keep alignment' is informal and less standard.
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Engineering pushed back on the feature request, citing the need to ___ technical debt before adding new functionality.
We 'address technical debt' in professional planning language. 'Address' is the standard formal verb: address debt, address concerns, address gaps. It implies a deliberate, structured approach. 'Fix technical debt' is informal and implies a quick patch. 'Deal with' is very informal for a written engineering context.
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The product team needed to ___ the scope of the launch to match what engineering could realistically deliver in Q3.
We 'right-size the scope' in product-engineering alignment. 'Right-size' means to calibrate to a realistic, appropriate level — neither too large nor too small. It is the most precise professional collocation for this scenario. 'Reduce scope' and 'trim scope' are also common, with 'scope down' being a frequent phrasal verb in agile.
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The quarterly business review gave product and engineering teams a chance to ___ their goals and resolve conflicting priorities.
We 'align goals' in business and product strategy language. 'Align' is the dominant verb in this context: align goals, align priorities, align on strategy. 'Sync' is very common in informal tech culture (sync up, sync on priorities). 'Harmonise' is more diplomatic/formal. 'Coordinate goals' focuses on logistics.
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Before committing to a feature, engineering asks product to ___ the problem clearly rather than jumping straight to a solution.
We 'articulate the problem' in product discovery and engineering collaboration. 'Articulate' means to express something clearly and precisely: articulate the problem, articulate requirements, articulate value. It implies clarity and communication skill. 'Define the problem' is also common and focuses on specification. 'Explain' is less formal.