AMA: Zendesk Director of Product Management, JJ Miclat on Stakeholder Management

Always put a buffer on what things will ship Be ruthless in regards to prioritization. Ship features/products that provide enough value to customers where they’ll try it, use it, and continue to use it, and to where the line of conversation/feedback is open between you and them (even if it’s littered with bugs and/or missing functionality). Feedback/validation is paramount, you should be ruthless in fixing those bugs and building the missing functionality, as a fast-follow. Be nebulous with time ...Read More

Product managers focus on identifying the most important problems to build for a persona/market. They then work with product development teams and cross-functional partners (take a swig every time I say cross-functional) to design, validate, build, launch, and optimize solutions that solve those problems. If you build it, they will come. Right? Lies. Product marketers work on pricing, positioning, messaging, of those features to the right customers, through the right delivery channels. They are ...Read More

When we say functions - we’re talking about cross-functional partners that my PMs need to work with to effectively get their job done. This includes but is not limited to design, engineering, marketing, analytics, research, content, legal, finance, program management, etc.. Establish and maintain strong organic relationships with managers of those functions. Let them know about your roadmap in advance (make sure every PM has a roadmap for their domain), and why each feature/product/enhancement m ...Read More

It’s usually not b/c they hate each other. It’s often times a disconnect in understanding each other, or a misalignment in objective/incentive. Understand the situation, assess both perspectives, form an opinion on the right path, use logic/reason to convince one (or both) of the parties why it makes sense to go down your route. Though, in most situations, let them work it out, I’m assuming you’re working with competent, logical adults and they would have to agree one something in order to move ...Read More