Shahid Hussain

Prioritise with respect to the key goal that is important to the org -- but balance with your estimation of what you think can land. That sounds simple, but in large matrixed organisations, that can get hard quickly. Sometimes it's not clear what advances the org's goal -- is there a key metric? Can you forecast a project's impact on that metric, and is that forecast credible? If shipping a particular project needs alignment from lots of teams, do all of them share the same incentives you do? If ...Read More

If you know that customers are not willing to adopt your solution, that's a bad spot to be in. Re-evaluate what led you to the decision to build & when to do it. Was there a gap in your methodology, or a piece of research that led you down this path? How can you avoid this for the next piece of strategy planning? Don't hope for better adoption -- test and prove this out. Can you get a high quality signal that customers will adopt, e.g. customers will pay you now for access to it? Is there a ...Read More

No-one can, or should ever be sure that they have a 100% right product strategy. But you can do a lot to de-risk your approach, and your tactics should vary depending on how much time you have to plan. Is your strategy ultimately going to drive the change in behaviour you want? Find the key participants in your strategy -- e.g. the customers -- and talk, talk, talk to them. You'll learn a ton from the first 5-10 conversations, and suddenly you'll start to hear the same themes and be able to pred ...Read More

If your org is driving significant benefit from a leadership position in the market -- whether that's a brand that drives an acquisition funnel, operating efficiency from scale or something else, it's reasonable to think about how to maintain that lead. Consider carefully why you are in a leadership position versus other customer options (competitors, substitute products etc). Is it unique? Sustainable? Are there small firms that could steal share by, for example, providing a more specialised or ...Read More

To get your roadmap approved, start by making sure everyone understands where you're trying to go - that's your vision. Think of it like your product's ultimate destination, and you need to get people to believe in it like you do. Make it clear by adding details where people are likely to ask questions to show you've done your homework. Next up is the strategy, which is just your plan for how to actually reach that vision. Be upfront about your goals, how you'll measure success, and any resource ...Read More

There's a lot of factors at play as a company grows -- it could change focus, go international, or pivot entirely. But there's two changes that are probably going to happen: The company will scale. That means more people, more layers. Expect more politics, and a bigger ship that turns more slowly. Your job as a PM will change from the functional shipping, to taking on more and more internal alignment work. Revenue focus. The company may go in & out of phases where it's all about the bottom l ...Read More

Market trends can be a good indicator of what will matter to users, investors or stakeholders. Don't ignore them, but also don't let them distract you from the fundamentals. Do you think this trend will drive a permanent shift in the market you operate in? If so -- consider how you can position yourself for success in the long term and the pros / cons of investing in alignment. If not, consider whether there are short / mid term changes you want to make to take advantage, or whether you just wan ...Read More

Be straight up with other teams, like sales and support, from the get-go. Instead of hard dates, talk about the overall vision of where the product is heading and the strategy or the general plan to get there with intermediate milestones. Think of these milestones as checkpoints; you can give rough estimates for when you expect to hit them, but make it clear these aren't set in stone. The most important thing is to keep the communication flowing. As you learn more and things shift (which they al ...Read More