AMA: Atlassian Head of Product, Enterprise Agility, Natalia Baryshnikova on Influencing the C-Suite

By bringing clear plans, having a track record of driving results, and not being known as a person who asks for resources to "build an empire".  - I expanded on what a "clear plan" means in other answers to this AMA. To recap, it is a plan that is driven by global optimization, is data-aware, actionable and specific about results that will be achieved through execution on this plan. - Having a track record of hitting goals and driving results in the past helps, but it is not a must for junior fo ...Read More

You need to educate the execs on those several directions. Often, folks assume that execs know (or remember) about those different directions. Be very clear and keep an ongoing education about the context of your situation - it is a part of your role to provide people with the right context and then remind them of it. A part of this is learning to say "no" to execs, which is an answer they are absolutely willing to hear - with a good justification, which describing the context often provides. Yo ...Read More

To resolve this situation, you need to: Establish who is the decision maker (it can't be two people)  Summarize conflicting points of view and communicate the process of how you evaluate them (pros & cons, etc.) Provide a clear recommendation based on your evaluation and decision-making framework Have the team commit (sometimes, "disagree and commit") to the plan.  At Atlassian, product managers use the DACI framework to move forward on decisions that are complex and/or have multiple stakeho ...Read More

3 most common pitfalls I see are:  Not simple enough Not investing into understanding broader context (outside of one's product area) Wrong words-to-numbers ratio Lack of simplicity is the most common out of these, and it usually manifests itself in long sentences, using jargon and vague words to describe specific (e.g. "solid" results). A good rule of thumb when presenting to C-suite is imagining an exec from a completely different field reading/listening to you. Would a sales leader understand ...Read More

Communicate on topics that matter to the executives through the comms channels that scale. For example, you can write your thoughts (but remember to bring specifics/numbers/exact plans) about topics that have a great impact on your product area or business overall.  Are you as a product line/business not doing something that you think you should be doing? Write about it (long form is better, but keep it simple) and share it with the organization. Executives are always on the lookout for risks an ...Read More

Be helpful, be clear, be gone.  Let me expand.  Helpfulness: execs need your help with in-depth expertise and knowledge in your local area of product/business. You can show it in three ways:  Provide simple, specific, data-driven and context-aware insights when presenting/writing or answering questions from the C-suite Raise your hand if you can help with something Make it easy for execs to understand and keep up-to-date with your area of product/business Clarity: See my answer on common pitfall ...Read More

You will need both EQ and data. More importantly, to influence data-driven execs (which, arguably, all execs are) you will need to help expand their view of the world by adding depth of understanding in your product/business area, additional layers of context that execs may not be aware of, and your ability to create clear and actionable plans with measurable results. My recommendation is not to think of EQ as a "counteract" to being data-driven, but rather use data, storytelling and clarity/dep ...Read More