AMA: Stripe Product Lead, Rishabh Dave on Stakeholder Management

There is no one-size-fits-all structure for product teams as organizations have different setups based on their needs, maturity, customer segments and nature of products & services offered. Also fast growing companies often go through restructuring every 6 months with fluid org structures. Having said that, the question can be broken down into 2 aspects:  Product org setup within the company: There are different variations of this: Independent product org: Product managers report into a Chie ...Read More

Companies typically have well-defined criteria around levels and competencies to help measure a product manager's performance. The primary objective of a product manager is to deliver user value and drive business impact by building the right products. Here are common dimensions to assess PM's success: Product metrics: Evaluate key metrics such as adoption, customer satisfaction, revenue growth, and other relevant performance indicators Collaboration and stakeholder relationships: Assess the sat ...Read More

TL;DR - Align on a framework that helps identify roles & responsibilities Decision making is often unclear in tech companies due to rapidly changing technology, company culture, complex & interconnected systems and matrixed org structures. This often leads to following challenges:  Conflicts - Complex decisions involving multiple inputs or x-functional partners often lack clear roles and process resulting in conflicts and disagreements Decision revaluation - When a decision is made, it’s ...Read More

Product Management is centered around people and the effectiveness of a PM in cultivating relationships with others directly impacts the quality of the product. Some of the steps tactics that can help build successful relationships are: Invest time in building connections: Dedicate time to 1:1 meetings with individuals from various functions and use these meetings to establish personal connections, understand their perspectives, and foster trust and camaraderie. Foster trust and actively listen ...Read More

Vision -> Ownership -> Clear expectations -> Progress -> Feedback  It is very common for PM’s to lead initiatives where the members in the working group don’t report to them. My approach towards managing team members who do not directly report to me while ensuring that the initiatives stays on track and folks are motivated involves following steps: Compelling vision - Get the team excited by painting a compelling picture of the desired outcome and impact for the team members, users a ...Read More

It's a tough situation if you, as a product manager, find yourself stuck in the middle without alignment. There are certain steps you can follow if you're in such a situation: Seek early feedback: Engage with stakeholders beforehand to gauge their support, concerns, or opposition to your proposed strategy. Understand their priorities and address their feedback where possible early on Present data and insights: Support your strategy with objective information such as data, user research, and mark ...Read More

The three important soft-skills for product managers to cultivate in their careers are: Communication (writing, public speaking, persuasion, listening): Product managers need to convey their ideas clearly, actively listen, gain support and key various teams and departments. Strong communication skills help in conveying product vision, requirements, and feedback; some tips to getting better at communication: Practice writing on a regular basis and seek feedback from colleagues who are good in thi ...Read More

Product intuition, also known as product sense, is the ability to understand what makes a product great and enables product managers to make effective decisions in ambiguous situations. It encompasses 3 key aspects: Empathy, Domain Knowledge (customers, competition, etc) and problem solving.   Empathy - Ability to view the world from the point of view of products' users, partners or competitors. PMs with strong product intuition can anticipate how users would react in various situations and unde ...Read More