Everyone Wants Something Done by Yesterday, How do I Handle that?
Applicable hints to handle multiple stakeholders.
Every now and then, I get the same question, “What do I do for a living?” It’s a simple question, but answering it precisely is complex. My general answer is, “I talk to many people and figure out what’s worth creating and what’s not.”
As a product professional, you talk to dozens of people every day. And guess what, everyone ones something from you. They expect you to get their requests done by yesterday.
An easy way to deal with this situation is to add a backlog item to every request. Yet, that’s not mindful, and you’ll end up trapped with a massive backlog. If you want to create value sooner, you need a strategy.
What Could You Do Today For a Better Tomorrow?
I won’t lie to you. It’s complex and challenging to deal with multiple business people, users, teams, etc. But some things can make your life easier.
Use the Power of Goals
You don’t want to be a scriber. Your job isn’t to keep a gigantic product backlog. On the contrary, you’ve got to keep it as lean as possible to have space to adapt to your learnings.
My first question to you is, do you have a common goal? That can be a product goal, objective key result, or the desired outcome. If you lack that, it’s time to step back and agree on a goal.
Without goals, teams are no more than a group of people working together.
Goals will help you escape arbitrary discussions and focus on what matters.
Master the Art of Saying No
Great product professionals say no ten times more than yes. Focusing is essential; by saying yes, you gain new responsibilities, while no help keeps your energy on what matters most.
The challenge isn’t saying no but keeping the relationship with your stakeholders sustainable. Let me give you a couple of hints:
Ask questions before committing to something, and strive to understand the problem the request solves, why it matters, how it aligns with your goal, and what success means. This will help stakeholders reflect and probably understand that their request isn’t a priority.
Remain curious. Product management is about separating good ideas from bad ones. Don’t blindly reject requests. Try understanding their value and evaluate whether it’s worth investing in them.
Let evidence and expertise talk louder than opinion. Everyone has opinions and ideas, but only a few have evidence and expertise. Learn how to differentiate opinions from evidence. It’s ok to have opinions, but it’s not ok to invest massive time without any evidence it’s worth the effort.
To conclude this part. Please, don’t run away from saying no. It’s easy to create backlog items instead of having the right conversations, but that will trap you.
Every new item in your backlog means expectations from stakeholders and pressure you will receive.
A Question For You
How does your yes/no ratio impact your focus?
Worth Reading
Struggling with Product Goals? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
How to connect product goals and product initiatives to maximize value
Note: Recently, I released a crash course about Product Discovery. You may be interested in knowing what successful companies do to create value sooner.