What are strategies for overcoming resistance to a new product vision?

A Product Vision becomes real to stakeholders and team members when they understand it intrinsically and are able to relate to it. This is the foundation on which any Product Vision communication needs to be established. In order to do this, powerful story-telling and relatable visualisations are the most effective tools to communicate the why. Your Vision communication must be simple and effective that treats every stakeholder as an individual who can put themselves in the shoes of the customers/users by virtue of the story/visualisation you share with them.

A new product vision needs to be sold through a story. Make everyone imagine they are a customer who faces a certain problem and then walk through what would he the ideal customer journey for this customer. Once everyone is sold on the validity of the problem add on details of what metrics it will move and how it is important for the company.

Sharing is caring! 1. Start sharing you vision 2. Collect all feedbacks, especially the negative ones 3. Understand what can you enhance on your vision based on those feedbacks 4. Share again 5. Repeat If you understand it is not about the product, but rather about processes, then you try to put yourself into your antagonist's shoes. It will be your first customer. You'll need to find the problem the antagonist is facing with your vision, so to give out the best version of it.

A huge part of communicating a vision boils down to storytelling. Data is important, but anecdotes (customer feedback and user research, typically) brings that data to life. Your story needs to be simple and concise - I once had a boss tell me that if I could explain it to my mother, a kid, and a drunk person at a bar and they could understand it then the story was ready to go. 😆

It is important to understand that we as product managers have a very detailed view of the product; the stakeholders are only accessing a high-level overview. Therefore, to understand the why, stakeholders need the most impactful reasoning. One such impactful reasoning is direct customer feedback. And one of the best ways to get the same is the use of focus group exercise. While the focus group may feel unnecessary to 'us' driving or developing a product, it adds significant value in communicating the why by adding direct customer feedback, though only representative.

Generally a product roadmap needs buy in from multiple stakeholders, leadership, engineers, designers, customer success team, sales team and more. A good way to getting them onboarded is talk to a few folks in each of the teams. I like to speak to someone from design, engineering, data science. Getting their views is helpful in augmenting the story and in the process I get more people who are champions for the idea. Preferably these are informal meetings and discussions where you should be open to changing your story, views and maybe the solution too.

Stakeholder management plays a crucial role in shaping and realizing the product vision. It involves identifying, analyzing, and engaging with individuals, groups, or organizations that can affect or be affected by the product. This could be internal stakeholders (leadership, engineers, designers, support, sales, presales, customer success, etc) and external stakeholders (prospects, customers, partners). Stakeholder management is an ongoing process that requires continuous effort and adaptability and is not just a limited or a one-time activity. Your product is going to evolve which means you need to ensure that your stakeholders are also moving at the same pace as your product evolution.

Stakeholder involvement is more than just a checkbox; it's a continuous dialogue. The key is to treat stakeholders as partners in vision creation, not just passive recipients. This fosters a sense of ownership among stakeholders, making them more likely to champion your vision internally.

Product managers are expected to be expert consensus builders. Whether it is research, design, engineering or marketing and sales teams, having a buy-in from these stakeholders is critical to any vision change exercise. Getting inputs from these partners early in the process, helps them have co-ownership of the new vision.

In such a scenario, often times you would be stacked against competing priorities and limited resources. Be empathetic to your stakeholders [internal and/or external based on the nature of the product/feature] which will allow you to better understand their goals. In addition to addressing their questions/concerns, helping them understand how this vision contributes to achieving their topline goals will lead to better stakeholder alignment.

Demonstrating the benefits is an integral part of understanding the "Why" behind solving a problem. If the problem doesn't offer significant scaled benefits, it raises the question of whether it's worth solving at all. Simply identifying a problem doesn't automatically mean it should be solved; certain problems hold more value than others. Therefore, it's crucial to assess the worthiness of the problem we are addressing, and providing specific, measurable data aids in aligning the product vision more efficiently. Moreover, this is not a one-time activity but an ongoing process that involves showcasing the benefits at every stage of the product release, starting from the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) phase.

When introducing a new product vision, showing its benefits is key. While raw data provides evidence, stories give it life, reaching stakeholders in ways numbers alone can't. I use a '6-Panel storyboard' to detail a user's journey, creating a relatable, human experience with very simple stick figures. This not only brings data to life but also fosters empathy, spurring collaboration. Such storytelling changes how teams think and act.

This is not really the third strategy but more an extension of telling the why. The why is generally benefits - either for customers or for the business. Consider this as proving the why. Through your research and understanding of customer explain why your 'why' will work. The clearer this picture the easier it is to get everyone on board the idea.

Benefits should be articulated not just in terms of business metrics but also in how they make users' lives better. Use 'before-and-after' scenarios to paint a vivid picture of the improvements your vision will bring. This makes the benefits tangible and relatable, increasing buy-in.

In B2b a way to show benefits is projecting how the new workflow compares to the the old workflow. a generic litmus test- if the new workflow reduces the work/effort by the 3x or gives them a superpower to be 3x more productive for the same amount of work, then its a good vision

In addition to the risks listed here, keeping these broader categories of risks in mind helps manage them and inform your product roadmap. Compliance & Legal Risks [e.g. building an innovative feature/product for Health and Finance verticals can be difficult to scale based on requirements] Cost to Launch/Scale/Maintain the product [Who and how will this product be funded through its lifecycle?] Insights and results required to Market your product [e.g. failure to think about how to market your product can hinder the scale and benefits expected from the product] Lifespan of the product [ Macroeconomic factors, upcoming legal and compliance policies, changing market needs can hinder progress for the product]

A major risk is the opportunity cost. By doing what you propose, what is the company missing. Why is it that what you're proposing still more important and valid. Along with that you have to tell the risks you foresee in your proposal and how best you can know in advance the unknown unknowns and try to work with them. Show that while you've understood as much as you can, there are still factors that could go wrong. The right leadership will understand the risks and still undertake projects which make sense

Risk management is not just about identifying what could go wrong but also about creating a culture where risks can be openly discussed and mitigated. Transparency in communicating both the risks and your strategies to mitigate them builds trust and shows your depth of understanding.

The one thing that goes wrong while trying to sell your product vision is that you get too attached to the idea. Any criticism of the idea is taken as criticism to you. This should be avoided at all costs. If people perceive that you are defending your idea even in face of valid arguments then they are less likely to be aligned with it. Try to distance yourself from the idea. Just keep yourself attached to the final outcome which is benefit of the company and customers. If your idea in the form you sell it doesn't do it, so be it. By keeping yourself open to opinions you learn more and are likely to come up with a better product vision

Feedback is a gift, and how you handle it can make or break your vision. The trick is to differentiate between feedback that refines your vision and feedback that derails it. Always validate feedback against your core objectives to ensure alignment.

Sometimes there might be change needed in the work the team does based on your roadmap. Other times there might be change needed in the way they think about the product or the customer. In such cases you need to provide them clarity whenever needed. They might doubt your judgement or even the product decision. At that time you need to be available to help them understand and come to the same page around why the vision is important. The sooner the team can come to a mind meld, the faster there will be progress on the roadmap and the more motivated the team will be

Inspiring change is about creating a movement, not just a mandate. Use storytelling to create a vivid, shared vision of the future that excites and motivates. When people are emotionally invested, they'll move mountains to see the vision come to life.

A product vision is something everyone needs to believe in, as it is not just a vision - it should translate into execution and that requires everyone's confidence in the vision. Making the team understand what the customer is and what the problem is generally is a good step that helps everyone come to the same understanding. The most important thing however is to not let your ego come in when someone rejects your vision. Because that can very well happen, you just need to fight for it till the time you believe it is the right thing for the company and if you change your mind, accept it and let everyone know