How have you been able to successfully impact the product roadmap when you disagreed with a product leader and were able to persuade them?

I always fall back on the first rule of product management - "your opinion, while interesting, is irrelevant." Back your idea up with solid, detailed customer research. A good blend of qualitative anecdotes and quantitative research data will serve you well.  Also, just general good advice for winning debates, is to make sure you fully understand where the other person is coming from. The PM knows her product and market well, so her opinion likely has merit. You can only present a compelling ale ...Read More

Story time! I once worked at a small company where two stakeholders disagreed on the product roadmap. The CTO disagreed with the CPO. In that scenario, the CTO had the experience as the customer, so this person felt that the experience was valid and warranted a seat at the table in product development discussions. As the PMM on the product, I took extra care to understand why the CTO disagreed. I took an inquisitive approach and treated the conversation like an interview with a Key Opinion Leade ...Read More

Most disagreements come from people having different sets of assumptions or information. I've found that if you lay out the reasons why you believe the product roadmap should be a particular way and make it easy to prove or disprove your hypotheses, it's easier to make better decisions. For example, in one of my prior product launches, our sales team strongly disliked our mobile app interface and disagreed with the product team on whether the product was ready for a broader launch. Rather than a ...Read More

As the CEO of Product School, I’ve seen how Product Marketers are responsible for more than they used to be in the past. Especially in terms of being aware of development timelines, constraints, and roadmapping.  I’d say that a good PM should reach out to its product marketing team to answer specific questions about the customers in the roadmap. Answers to questions like “Who will use our product? Who will pay for our product? What do they care about? Why will they choose our solution?” are of v ...Read More