Credibility
How do you navigate change while preserving trust?
The core responsibilities of a Product Manager generally include building and maintaining a roadmap for the product they manage (or, for a Product leader, for the products in a portfolio that they own, as well as the roadmap for that portfolio overall). Of course the roadmap represents the direction the Product Manager believes the product (and in some cases the company) should head, based on all of the data and stakeholder (customer, market, and cross-functional) inputs they’ve received and processed to date. In short, the roadmap reflects where the product (or portfolio) stands today, where s/he wants to take it and why, and over what period of time. Roadmaps are often hotly discussed and thoroughly debated on the way to finalization, at which point they’re ready for use in telling the story about where we’re heading.
Telling the story, where? Internally, roadmaps are used to communicate cross-functionally about where the product/portfolio is heading. Internal stakeholders should already be well-connected to Product Management, sharing what they need the product to do for them to be successful. But asking is not the same thing as receiving a commitment to deliver, and without the roadmap they may have no idea where the product is heading (or why), and whether or not their needs are being properly represented in planning (or why). Whether or not their needs are being met, a clear roadmap with well-articulated rationale behind the decisions that have been made can go a long way to keeping internal stakeholders aligned and on-side, and can be an important contributor to their own budgeting and planning processes.
How about external use of roadmaps? Most customer-facing employees should not be talking about product futures with customers because the risks of mis-setting expectations or mis-informing customers is high. Product Managers often use less detailed versions of roadmaps with customers, prospects, partners, analysts, and other outside parties to illustrate that the company knows what it needs to do and that it has a plan to do those things. These audiences tend to be hungry for such insights to help them make informed decisions, reassure them that they’ve made a correct decision, properly compare vendors and more. As a PM it can be super-satisfying to see excitement, interest, and even relief on these faces when sharing the story outlined by the roadmap.
But before we start sharing the roadmap, though, it’s worth brushing up on some history, particularly if you’re new to the business:
How does the roadmap today compare to what we’ve told the customers previously?
What did we deliver from previous roadmaps, and what’s not yet delivered? Why?
If we’ve under-delivered, what did we do instead? And again, why?
Achieving credibility as a Product Manager (and as a spokesperson for your product, portfolio, or company) starts with demonstrating a solid and deep understanding of customer needs, priorities, and how to solve them with a story that resonates with decision makers. But it’s equally dependent on your ability to deliver those solutions. No matter how compelling the story is on your roadmap, if the audience (internal or external) doesn’t believe you’ll actually deliver that compelling value, you have a problem. As the saying goes: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Do the homework if needed to figure out your track record. If you have delivery gaps, consider including in your story some context-setting that explains the gaps, the reasons behind the shifts, and emphasizes the value that you have delivered, before you launch into the roadmap. It’s even better if you know ahead of time how your audience has benefitted from that value so you can remind them. Remember, too, that not every audience is the same, and any given group will have a different perspective on unmet deliverables, and reset priorities and roadmaps — that’s more homework to be done for each meeting.
Customers and other stakeholders will usually understand that priorities sometimes change. Customers in particular know that they are as a group often (but not always) the impetus for changing priorities. But they also want to work with vendors who deliver, and need to trust that you will. Transparency, humility, and honesty about where we’ve been and why plans have changed are important tools in maintaining that trust, even when there is cause for it to have been broken.
As always, thanks for reading
J
