How can you effectively negotiate with senior leadership on product priorities?

Yes, this is a good list. But don’t approach it as a negotiation at this stage. At this point, the product manager should come into this discussion with an open mind - to listen, analyze, and ask clarifying questions. Most importantly, PMs should not limit their questions or analysis to thinking about the feature / functionality. Great PMs inquire about the go-to-market strategy and investments as well. As an example, if you are a B2B SaaS provider and looking to expand into an adjacent market, and invest into relevant product development, does the company plan to use its own salesforce or will it partner? If it’s the latter, are there any integrations to consider or is purely a reseller partnership? So, don’t negotiate. Listen & Learn!

Unless Senior leaders are active in the Territories with their salespeople, how can they truly understand what their customers need and want. Instead of micromanaging your salesforce based on your manufacturing capabilities, get yourself educated on what these customers want and need; as well as setting “business plans” on your manufacturing capabilities instead of business trends and needs of your customers. Get out of behind your desks and get a real feel for the needs.

Product strategy must be always be in alignment with Business strategy. A good product person understands that and develops a product prioritization framework that assigns a numerical weighted score to each product request based on the expected ROI a Product feature delivers to business goal(s) such as market expansion, entry in a new market, operational cost reduction, process optimization or anything else. It then effectively arms the product manager to negotiate with senior leadership using data backed facts rather then qualitative assertions. Leadership is then able to get a realistic view of the costs if their ask involves a shift from the business strategy. resources are dear and helps distribute those effectively.

When you ask “is this a priority,” senior leadership will always answer “yes.” But if you ask senior leadership to stack rank their priorities against one another, well, now we’re getting somewhere. Once stack ranked, look at the frequency and severity of the problems. Adjust accordingly. Congrats — you just negotiated priorities with senior leadership.

Product managers represent the CX and are accountable to senior leadership before, during, and after a release: - Pre-Planning: backlog intent, objectives, context - Release Planning: release plans, dependencies, priorities, review - Delivery Success: alignment, validation, feedback, impediment resolution - Continuous Improvement: risk management, change agents, support In order to effectively negotiate priorities at any stage, product managers need to communicate the following: - Product Roadmap - Business Value: expected benefit for major releases, OKR impact for minor releases - Action Plan: critical when data is N/A to support decision A product manager's responsibility is to seek alignment with and commitment from senior leadership.

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence - Hitchens Razor. Firstly, don't bring a bread knife to a gunfight. Arm yourself with data. Providing a clear and confident set of initiatives, communicate the why. Storytelling is key. Bring stakeholders along with you on the journey. Show them how why you're proposing aligns with goals, what the expected outcomes are and how you plan to measure them. Visuals also go a long way. Create a roadmap, show a plan for the initiatives and how they fit into the bigger picture.