TL;DR
- Keep data at your fingertips
- Hone the art of saying “No” by focusing on the “Why”
- Don’t be afraid to over-communicate; even if it’s not ‘good’ news
Keep data at your fingertips
If an executive/lead asks you to work on X, Y, and Z and drop everything else. You need to be able to push back and at that time, data is the only thing that will help you drive consensus and win arguments. An example of approaching this conversation well would be articulating trade-offs by saying something like focusing on Project A right now would mean dropping Project B which would result in a $X million loss in revenue because we will lose the opportunity to monetize on the YY number of users. It’s critical for us to deliver this in order to build the foundations to execute Project A. Having the data allows you to be objective and be a better negotiator.
Hone the art of saying “No” by focusing on the “Why”
Saying “No” (to anyone for that matter!) can be difficult and often daunting for some. As a PM, you need to constantly (re)prioritize and change direction. As a PM, you don’t tell people what to do, you need to convince them. Focus on the implications of conflicting priorities; make it constructive and not personal; again, having data can be extremely powerful. Refrain from having emotional conversations about a feature and make it about the meta goal. Remember to say “No” and still stay friends since you both are working towards the same larger goals at the end of the day.
Don’t be afraid to over-communicate; even if it’s not ‘good’ news
Sometimes things just get lost in the shuffle and as a result, it is critical to over-communicate. Over-communicating can also reset priorities and help you pivot to more important things as people are more aware and can provide feedback quicker. Sending a status report to management explaining a roadblock, telling another team that an API dependency they need is delayed by a few days, telling your engineering team that some of their work needs to be redone because of a design decision taken in the past, are all examples of how you can let you stakeholders know what’s going on. All of us are faced with unforeseen circumstances. Situations change, and we need to adapt. People are usually a lot more understanding when they are told the truth. This also helps you earn stakeholder trust.