Product managers juggle a wide range of responsibilities, from defining the vision for a product, prioritizing product features and monitoring the market.
But perhaps the most crucial role they have is that of stakeholder management.
The role of the product manager is to align the company’s stakeholders, whether they’re investors, employees or suppliers behind the ultimate vision for their product. The more people there are in line with common goals, the more likely it is that there will be a successful outcome.
Building trust with and managing stakeholders takes both time and effort, yet it’s essential for future buy-in. For Frame.io Senior Product Manager Jo Engreitz, cross-functional support, transparency, ample documentation and even empathy all play a part in cultivating a healthy stakeholder relationship.
Built In NYC checked in with Engreitz to learn how her team approaches stakeholder management.
Frame.io enables distributed teams to collaborate on media in a single platform. Teams can use their platform to gather feedback on video frames, illustrate ideas through drawings, and receive comments and approvals in real time.
Which stakeholders do you include in the product planning process, and what role do they play in informing the product strategy?
When I think about product planning, I think in terms of three questions: Why are we here? What problems do we need to solve for and for whom? How are we going to solve them?
Company leadership plays an important role in setting the “why” — the long-term vision and medium-term goals for the company — and that lays the foundation for the product strategy. And leadership often also supports the “what” and the “how.” For example, big swings that require marshaling resources from across the organization need to be planned in lockstep with company leadership. Other initiatives may require only a quarterly roadmap review.
Support and sales are great resources for refining the “what.” They’re often closest to our existing customers’ pain points and wish lists. Each product manager meets weekly with a point person from support and sales to share roadmap progress and get a pulse on the latest customer sentiment.
Of course, it goes without saying that design, engineering, QA, data, security and marketing teams are critical partners in determining the “how.” But they also bring important cross-functional perspectives to the “what.”
What steps have you found to be particularly helpful in managing stakeholders and their expectations regarding how products and features are prioritized?
Creating transparency in the decision-making process goes a long way. I’ve found that stakeholders nearly always accept (if not outright support) the prioritization decision once they have full visibility into the context.
First, it’s important to establish a shared language for the different variables being considered, such as resources, time and scope, as well as a framework for evaluating competing priorities. The more you can structure and shed light on your decision-making, the easier it will be for stakeholders to understand and buy-in.
Second, align on expectations for what types of events might warrant a change in the roadmap. For example, what do we do when work takes longer than planned? How will bugs be triaged? What’s the process for evaluating a new time-sensitive market opportunity? Anticipating and planning for unknowns allows stakeholders to escalate important new insights without disrupting the roadmap.
Finally, publish and maintain documentation of your roadmap, including items in the backlog that didn’t make the cut. If plans change, broadcast what’s changing and why.
The more you can structure and shed light on your decision-making, the easier it will be for stakeholders to understand and buy-in.”
What steps have you taken to build trust with stakeholders?
Trust is truly the foundation of high-performing teams, and there’s no silver bullet for establishing it. But in my mind, there are two key pillars: empathy and vulnerability.
Empathy is about listening and understanding. Stakeholders each bring a unique perspective to the table that can help you make better decisions. Hear them out, ask follow-up questions and work with them to unpack their problems.
Vulnerability is about openness to feedback, being wrong and big swings that might not work. By staying transparent, sharing results even when they’re not favorable and inviting feedback, you create an openness that builds trust.
A while back, I led an initiative to test a freemium experience. It was a risky bet with a long-time horizon. I first did a listening tour with stakeholders from across departments, which not only built trust but also armed me with vital information. Then, I laid out all the risks on the table up front and established clear metrics to monitor any potential downside. Highlighting all the things that could go wrong actually helped get buy-in. Stakeholders felt heard, and the line of sight to each risk built confidence in our ability to manage them.
