How do I influence the roadmap of our product, when my product team isn't very open to it?

Question

Vishal Naik · Accepted Answer

Winning over stakeholders is a key part of being a PMM, and it might be your approach that needs an iterative update. IMO, influencing roadmap comes down to influencing PMs--and some are going to be easy to work with and easily malleable and some arent. So if your product management team isnt open to customer or prospect feedback on your product, what are they interested in? How are they making their decisions about what to include into roadmap? How are you packaging the insights you hear from customers and prospects about your product? Is the "cost" of not listening to your customers and prospects established?

I'd start with building a strong relationship with your PM, first at a personal level, then work to deliver business impact back to that PM. If you have feedback from customers, is there something you can do--write a blog, host a webinar, etc. where you can factor in customer/prospect feedback? I'd venture a guess that your performance would be pretty strong on that deliverable, since you've listened directly to the customer. Then take those results back to the PM and talk about how you saw better engagement that drove better business metrics (leads, sales, revenue). While you're at it, ask questions about the PM's process on the roadmap and what is driving how they make choices around what to include.

My biggest feeling about PMM influencing roadmap is that its an earned opportunity, not a given one. So if you can learn what makes your PM tick and you can provide metrics around business impact when your customer insights are leveraged, then you can work towards more influence of your product manager which will ultimately afford you more influence over the product roadmap.

Mary (Shirley) Sheehan · Answer

Echoing what Josh and Ross have mentioned, to influence the PM team it's all about figuring out the gaps that the product team has and how you can add value. Competitive intel weak? Share a feature matrix. They haven't talked to customers since the dawn of time? Interview a few, record the convos (with permission), pull out some quotes, and share - this can be really eye opening.

For real roadmap influence, I highly recommend the "Jobs to Be Done" approach. Many product teams are looking at the capabilities of your technology or data - not the actual job that a customer would like to use your product for. (Google "Clay Christensen" for a rundown of the framework, Intercom has also made a lot of noise on this). Flipping the perspective - and planning for products that your customers actually NEED, vs what your product can DO, is a huge step in the direction of influencing the roadmap.

Huzaifa Dalal · Answer

I really like what Mary, Ross and Josh have to say - great insights

What's the product's objective? With the current plans will the business objectives and goals be met?

I'm asuming you are coming from the angle that the business objectives will not be met. Building a business case around gaps, challenges, customer insights, competitive assumptions, sales challenges and opportunities. Building a case isn't enough, build a framework that shows how success can be acheived and communicate it among key influencers, decision makers and performers.

Build an opportunity for the product, sales teams to TRUST you. Maybe try small steps in building your TRUST, with data and key insights

Josh Colter · Answer

Bring them market insights, not feature requests. I share recorded interviews and sales calls with the product team to help them understand our customers. Also, I hunt down helpful analysis of the larger market landscape and distribute widely across the org on a regular basis.

Remember where they're coming from - product people usually want to know where to focus their time with the least risk of throwing away work or winding up with the pressure of trying to build for competing priorities. They want to build things that are valuable, useful, and feasible. You can help steer them in the right direction by sharing the insights that help them gain clarity in one of those three areas.

Dan Laufer · Answer

That's tough since a lot of it is interpersonal dynamics. I don't think there's a silver bullet but a couple thoughts that might help:

1. Bring product into some of the meetings/focus groups where you're hearing the feedback. That may help them crystallize what you're hearing.

2. Set up a 1:1 with your PM counterpart and see what you can do to be helpful in getting feedback to her/him. It could be you're talking past one another. For example she may want data and you're bringing qualatitative feedback which isn't resonating. Not everything can be quantified but even tallying the type of feedback you're hearing can quant lite :)

Ross Overline · Answer

There are a few questions here: How do I influence the team, how do I influence the roadmap, and how do I get them to listen to the feedback I'm bringing from customers.

First, seek to understand. Approach your product team and roadmap decision makers with the intent to understand their values, motivations, goals, concerns, and needs. Once you've developed this level of understanding of your stakeholders, you can then truly understand what it is they want.

After understanding my product team, what I've found most effective is to uncover the intersection between what they need and where I can deliver outsized value. Understand their strengths and your strengths, and then understand where that "Venn Diagram" does or doesn't overlap, in line with what the product team wants. Broadly, for a PMM I'd recommend knowing your customers, category, and competition better than anyone else, and see which of those product is most interested in.

It's hard to address the piece about consumer feedback because I don't know the specifics of your situation, but let's assume you're bringing them qualitative feedback from customers from 1:1 interviews. What if they are already talking to customers? What if they believe they already understand that specific segment? What if your team prefers quantitative data over qualitative? Are you asking the types of questions that your product team is looking to answer? Do you have clarity on their top priorities and does the feedback you surface reflect that alignment and support those priorities?

The answer to those questions come from understanding the stakeholders. You may need to start with giving them deep competitive insights. Once you build trust and become a thought partner, doors open for you to introduce other kinds of insights.

There's a lot to say on this topic, but I'll start there. If you have follow up questions, feel free to message me with more specifics and I can try to offer more tactical advice!

There is also a PMM leader named Mike Polner who is worth trying to contact. He taught me all of this :)

Related Ask Me Anything Sessions

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing, Mary (Shirley) Sheehan on Product Marketing Career Path

Appcues VP Marketing, Eric Keating on Influencing the Product Roadmap

Wistia Director of Product Marketing, Elise Beck on Influencing the Product Roadmap

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