AMA: Hootsuite VP of Product, Clara Lee on Stakeholder Management

In my experience, time horizon and top customers can be the two biggest drivers of conflicting goals. Examples: Product is building tomorrow's vision – but Sales and Customer Success need to sell what is in the product today. As a Product leader, it can be challenging to justify working on feature iterations and bug fixes when you are also expected to deliver a completely new experience that will solve or negate those code red issues in a few months. The main questions I ask in these situations ...Read More

My approach at my current and former company (both of which are medium sized) is based on how well-resourced the other team is. For example, in experiences where Design and Marketing are still growing into the opportunity, I've found that the most beneficial conversations tend to be focused on prioritization and sequencing. With functions that tend to operate at a greater scale, like Sales and Customer Success, I have found it is best to quickly figure out who can be your "single point of contac ...Read More

At the VP level, these are the meetings I try never to miss: Engineering, Design & Operations peers [Weekly] – Having this at my current has made the biggest difference. My peers are my "first team" and we have time set aside to proactively problem-solve together, instead of being brought together only in escalation situations. Anyone can add agenda topics, and we order them at the beginning of each meeting based on urgency. GTM Sync & Launch Readiness [Weekly] – This is a regular touchp ...Read More

The path to gaining product roadmap approval depends on the decision-making culture of the company: If you are in a place where approval rights are clear, the key is understanding what those stakeholders need to say "yes." What level of detail do they require to feel confident that the team is doing the right things? Do they like to be brought along on the journey or handed a solution? Are they most likely to respond to data, written descriptions, visuals? If you are in a place where approval is ...Read More