The Power of Consensus: Unlocking Effective Product Management
As a product manager, your role is not to dictate every idea that comes to mind, but to rally others around a clear product vision, strategy, and roadmap. This requires building consensus among leadership, stakeholders, and the product team. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of consensus in product management and provide practical tips on how to achieve it.
Why Consensus Matters
Reaching consensus on your product direction can feel daunting, especially with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities. However, it’s essential for ensuring everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals. Without consensus, you risk scope creep, misunderstandings, and ultimately, a failed product.
Building a Strong Product Strategy
A strong product strategy is the foundation of consensus. It begins with clear problem statements, data analysis, competitor research, customer interviews, and internal feedback. Involve multiple stakeholders, including design, engineering, analytics, and product marketing, to gather diverse perspectives. Ask questions, such as:
- What are the behaviors or paths associated with customers who retain after month one versus those who don’t?
- What are the reasons customers provide when they cancel? Are there any trends?
- What value did customers expect to find in your product, and why did they not find it?
Use these insights to build a strategy that is valuable, viable, usable, and feasible.
Collaborating with Your Manager
Your manager is a crucial partner in building consensus. Share your strategy early on and seek feedback. Good managers know the right questions to ask to help their employees increase the quality of their work. Involving your manager early also helps prepare you for broader consensus-building with leadership.
Presenting a Compelling Story
When presenting your strategy to leadership, use storytelling techniques to paint a picture of how your strategy and roadmap will contribute to the company’s goals. Structure your story as follows:
- Restate the goal and/or broad problem area
- Share a summary of the specific opportunities you’re looking to solve
- Present the details of each focus area, including problem statements, data analyses, and proposed solutions
- Conclude by recapping each solution and noting the projected impact
Seeking Consensus During Roadmap Execution
Consensus-building doesn’t end after initial buy-in. During roadmap execution, you’ll need to win consensus from various stakeholders frequently. This includes UI/UX approaches, technical implementation options, go-to-market strategies, and deliverables. Be prepared to facilitate tradeoff discussions and communicate effectively with all parties involved.
Exhibiting Confidence and Humility
When building consensus, be confident in your recommendations but also humble and open to feedback. Listen to opposing views and consider alternative perspectives. If you’ve already evaluated an idea and decided against it, explain your reasoning. If you haven’t evaluated an idea, ask questions and conduct further research.
The Art and Science of Consensus Building
Product management is both an art and a science. Consensus building requires combining quantitative discovery and success metric projections with collaboration, communication, and user empathy. By approaching consensus building with confidence and humility, you can unlock effective product management and drive successful product outcomes.