How do today’s product managers successfully manage stakeholder feedback and expectations?
Well, it depends on the company and the product. And while there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, PMs rely on a few common strategies to build trust and ensure everyone stays connected throughout the project lifecycle.
One such commonality is cross-functional engagement — at least that’s the case for the following San Francisco product managers. Both shared with Built In SF that keeping a clear line of communication between all involved stakeholders is vital to the success of any project.
Aurora Solar’s Director of Product Management Janet Brunckhorst said that a combination of transparency, clarity and timeliness among the product teams, go-to market teams and customers is necessary for managing stakeholder expectations. When all three are in play, she and her colleuges are able to help solve customers’ problems in a way that also serves the needs of the business.
Which stakeholders do you include in the product planning process, and what role do they play in informing the product strategy?
At Aurora, our cross-functional product teams (product management, design and engineering) are involved throughout the planning process. Outside of those teams, we engage stakeholders from our go-to market teams (sales, customer success, customer support and marketing), as well as our customers.
Our goal as a product organization is to solve hard problems for our customers in a way that serves the needs of our business. The partnerships we have with customers directly, and with our partners in customer success and sales, are vital to defining those problems. We also work closely with the go-to market teams to understand things like overall industry trends, brand perception and competitors. All of these stakeholder inputs are integral to creating a robust product strategy.
Nothing is more effective for building trust than saying you will do something, and then doing it.”
What steps have you found to be particularly helpful in managing stakeholders and their expectations regarding how products and features are prioritized?
Transparency, clarity and timeliness.
These may sound obvious, but we are most successful when we intentionally combine these things. Transparency is necessary but not sufficient. I will never rely on people reading a shared roadmap when it comes to managing expectations! It’s really important to be clear on who the stakeholders are and what they care about, so that I can proactively give them updates on those things.
For clarity on who stakeholders are, I find it helpful to create a stakeholder map when kicking off a new initiative. This is especially useful if we are communicating with multiple people on a customer’s team. Working with customer success, customer support and sales is really helpful in identifying our customer stakeholders.
What steps have you taken to build trust with stakeholders?
I worked in consulting prior to joining Aurora, and our adage was always, “build trust by delivering.” Nothing is more effective for building trust than saying you will do something, and then doing it. Recently, we partnered with a customer on the development of a new feature. The relationship was always a good one, but it was a typical customer-supplier dynamic. That really shifted when we were able to show working software, get feedback on it and demonstrate iterative progress. We moved into a co-creation mode where we were solving problems together. In that context, building buy-in is no longer a separate step — it just happens as part of the way you work together.
In order to manage stakeholder expectations, Shift Technologies Senior Product Manager Zakir Tyebjee uses certain mechanisms to build structure and consistency as well as provide auditing opportunities for the team to debate prioritization. Tyebjee’s mechanisms include monthly goal reviews with leadership, bi-weekly roadmap reviews and bi-weekly email newsletters.
Which stakeholders do you include in the product planning process, and what role do they play in informing the product strategy?
As PMs, we need to lead by influence, and I’m a big proponent of doing so by crafting a clear vision that brings everyone along for the ride. So, my planning process typically is cross-functional, spanning across my core team (engineers, designers and data scientists) and stakeholders (sales, marketing and operations). The more that we can help our stakeholders understand our joint North Star and the “why” behind what we are building, the better product we can build for our customers and the more efficient we will operate as a team in doing so.
With an organized, structured set of mechanisms comes a culture of trust and accountability.”
What steps have you found to be particularly helpful in managing stakeholders and their expectations regarding how products and features are prioritized?
I believe that effective prioritization starts with a clear vision and clear goals. Once those are defined, I like to establish mechanisms to manage my product space. Mechanisms are any recurring set of processes or techniques, whether synchronous or asynchronous. Mechanisms build structure and consistency, while providing auditing opportunities for stakeholders to debate prioritization on a continuous basis. A few examples that have worked for me are monthly goal reviews with leadership, bi-weekly roadmap reviews with stakeholders and bi-weekly email newsletters.
What steps have you taken to build trust with stakeholders?
The key to building trust is to establish ownership of your product space, which includes being the expert on your customer experience, business metrics, internal processes and areas of opportunity. I believe that PMs should also take lead by using mechanisms to drive structure, consistency and accountability. For example, if I want to prioritize some quick-win improvements in an upcoming sprint, I’ll use my bi-weekly stakeholder review as a mechanism to get input from the customer experience team on our biggest CSAT detractors and from design on how we can make those improvements in the existing customer flow. With an organized, structured set of mechanisms comes a culture of trust and accountability.
