What has been the greatest accomplishment made when you’ve had to influence others without authority and did it make things easier for you when you needed buy in on other projects?

As a startup PMM, I often had to forge my own authority. This is a constant struggle : People don't know what PMM does, you rarely have a budget, and have a small team or no team. The secret sauce? Find a champion. At AdRoll, I convinced a "get-it" product manager to partner on a case study launch. The results spoke volumes, earning our team respect and smoother future launches. More context: When I started, product managers didn't collaborate with PMMs at all on a launch; they shipped and told ...Read More

This question is related to a previous one about navigating politics. At the end of the day, influencing others IS about navigating politics. When trying to figure out how to influence, you need to identify who the decision-maker is and understand their goals. Oftentimes, you'll find that you share goals (but they may not have the same data you do). DO come to the table with a point of view. Do NOT force your point of view on others, especially if you do not own the decision. DO bring others alo ...Read More

My biggest accomplishment was in a prior role at a different company for a SaaS product. I was able to persuade the product and executive leadership team to invest in a redesign of the user experience of a product that had become stale compared to new entrants in the space. Redesigns can be a hard sell as they do not produce immediate revenue and at best have a neutral impact on customer satisfaction. The key to getting buy-in was making a compelling case for the change based on customer and com ...Read More

It's never an easy task to get buy in from stakeholders if you are still working on building up authority and respect but what goes a long way is having an open mind and listening to stakeholders' input. I've found that sitting down with people, maybe interviewing them about their opinions and ideas, will help you build a rapport that might help secure buy in in the future. Asking for their input and feedback even before you need it gives them the confidence that they can trust you in the future ...Read More