Tactics for Dealing With Changing Stakeholder Perspectives.
The life of a Product Manager is filled with challenges, not the least of which is navigating the ever-shifting perspectives of stakeholders.
Often, these shifting viewpoints lead to distractions and a firefighting approach rather than a strategic one.
Here’s how PMs can effectively manage priorities even when faced with such challenges.
Focus on Outcomes.
Keeping your focus on outcomes helps the team stay aligned on the overall objective.
This provides clarity and direction, ensuring everyone is working towards the same goal.
Imagine your stakeholder demands a flashy new feature.
Instead of immediately jumping into execution, ask, How will this feature move our key metrics? or what problem are we solving with this change?.
If the feature doesn’t significantly improve the user experience or move the needle on an important metric, it might not be worth the effort and maybe should move to the later column in your roadmap.
Stay Grounded in Reality
While optimism is essential, it’s also crucial to remain grounded. Stakeholders might sometimes overestimate the impact of a feature, leading to unrealistic expectations.
If a stakeholder believes a new home page will drastically increase user engagement, remind them of other similar enhancements in the past.
Use data and metrics to show that while such a change might enhance aesthetics, it may not have a pronounced impact on user engagement.
Size Every Change
By evaluating the magnitude of every stakeholder’s request in terms of affected users, effort required, and expected business impact, you can prioritize effectively.
Let’s say a stakeholder asks for a feature that caters to a niche user group.
Upon evaluation, you find that it benefits only 1% of your user base, requires considerable development effort, and has a minimal business impact.
Comparing this to another feature that affects 40% of users with the same effort might help in decision-making.
Set Clear Definitions
Having agreed-upon definitions for terms like urgent, important, and quick-win ensures there’s no ambiguity.
This aids in understanding the real urgency behind stakeholder requests.
For example, a stakeholder might label a new feature request as urgent.
However, when you refer to the previously agreed-upon definition, you might find that urgent refers to issues that could result in significant revenue loss if not addressed within 24 hours.
This helps in discerning if the request truly fits the urgent label or if it can be scheduled for a later sprint.
Managing priorities is an art that requires a balance of soft skills and data-driven decision-making.
By emphasizing outcomes, staying grounded in reality, sizing each change, and setting clear definitions, Product Managers can navigate the hell of changing stakeholder perspectives, ensuring both the team’s focus and product success.
I know you have other tactics 🤔 I’m eager to know! Share it with me in the comments 💡