Stakeholder Management
Product Anecdotes
I have come across a broad range of business heads in my career who were super passionate about the business they are in. Some were practically living and breathing their roles.
The kind of effort and time they invested in the product was not only remarkable but also inspirational. A lot of the time I had the opportunity to learn from them.
In the product-building process, a lot of the time you are in and out of alignment with the business. As much as you want to be in alignment with each other, there would always be scenarios where you won’t be.
There was a time like that for me as well when as a product manager I had to weigh my options between building a great product and launching the MVP.
Most newbie product managers typically think that they are going to make a Facebook or an Instagram on day 1. Don’t get me wrong I was one of them!
Instagram and Facebook are not what they are today on day 1.
And then I got into product management and I realized how tough it is to even release one small feature and force it out of the door.
It is inspiring but exhausting!
I clearly recollect a time when I was explaining my side of the argument to the business head on why we needed to cut down the scope. I noticed the body language of the business head was tipping off the scale a bit which I ignored given I was fully engrossed in explaining my point.
After a point in the conversation, I realized the business head has stopped using words and had a frown on their face. The conversation ended on a not-so-sweet note.
A few days have gone by, and I was called in by my manager. My manager revealed that later on the business head had reached out to her and was in tears while explaining that the product is not heading in a promising direction.
No way in my dreams I was expecting this reaction from someone I shared a great camaraderie with.
But did you observe what happened?
Usually, in interviews, you are asked about your stakeholder management skill, and rate yourself as having excellent skills.
And that day I realized what stakeholder management could in fact mean. I am not saying you are going to meet someone who is going to cry in front of you but someone who may end up throwing other types of emotions your way such as mean comments, rude behavior, etc. This is not ok and we are not supposed to take this. But we need to handle it in such a way that they don’t end up doing this to us.
How do we handle this?
An extremely good piece of advice I got that day from my manager was, you need to hold empathy not just for your consumer but for your stakeholders as well. They are the people who are not directly involved in building the product and may not gain the entire visibility on the delivery and yet attached to the mere thought of delivering a great product on day 1.
Whenever you come across someone who is acting out of emotions, you have to notice and pay attention. It indicates that this might not be the accurate time to have this conversation. It becomes absolutely imperative to follow a pause by ending the conversation on a pleasant note.
This prompted me of what my mom used to say, “That short story which cannot be brought to any outcome, it is better to leave by giving that a beautiful twist.”
On one hand, you have prevented that person to reach a point where the person could have started throwing emotions toward you.
On the other hand, you as a product manager equally has discovered an opportunity to re-assess the situation. It becomes critically significant to show your emotional intelligence at this point in time or at least use this opportunity to build one.
Once you are done, re-assessing starts the conversation once again with the stakeholder and this time includes your senior/colleagues. Don’t worry about asking for a little bit of help, it is not going to reflect critically on you.
Many of you will probe the professionalism part of it and argue that we were solely doing our job. But a product manager’s job does call for empathy for each and every person involved in the product-building process.
This is not something anyone is born with but another skill that you acquire over time.
I am still learning and growing.
Comment below to share your experience where you came across a formidable stakeholder.
