Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#1

Post by mikhaill » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 6:02 PM UTC

Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'
letsnotdothat.com

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#2

Post by datadrivenangel » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:08 PM UTC

There is a difference between a hard no (We are not doing that) and this softer no (We are not doing that but we are not committed to not doing that), and in less mature organizations that difference is important and very useful.

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#3

Post by gopalv » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:11 PM UTC

This sort of advice is parodied in "Yes, Prime Minister" as the 4 step strategy for "crisis management"

1: Don't worry, nothing's going to happen.

2: Something may be happen but we should wait and see

3: Maybe we should do something about it, but there is no clear action

4: Maybe there was something we could've done, but it's too late now

Stringing along a bunch of people who think they are being heard and listened to when you are not is a morale killer when the tide goes out & we see who's been swimming naked.

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#4

Post by senkora » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:17 PM UTC

gopalv wrote: post #3

This sort of advice is parodied in "Yes, Prime Minister" as the 4 step strategy for "crisis management" 1: Don't worry, nothing's going to happen. 2: Something may be happen but we should wait and see 3: Maybe we should do something about it, but there is no clear action 4: Maybe there was something we could've done, but it's too late now Stringing along a bunch of people who think they are being heard and listened t…

The delivery in "Yes, Prime Minister" is very good. Here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSD1d-6P6qI

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#5

Post by gooseus » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:23 PM UTC

gopalv wrote: post #3

This sort of advice is parodied in "Yes, Prime Minister" as the 4 step strategy for "crisis management" 1: Don't worry, nothing's going to happen. 2: Something may be happen but we should wait and see 3: Maybe we should do something about it, but there is no clear action 4: Maybe there was something we could've done, but it's too late now Stringing along a bunch of people who think they are being heard and listened t…

This is also the story of my political discourse for the last four years, and will almost certainly continue for the next four.

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#6

Post by extr » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:25 PM UTC

I don't even really feel like this is a PM-specific trait. The best engineers I know stay focused on immediate priorities and what needs to happen to see particular outcomes. The worst PMs I know derail meetings with suggestions/changes/tweaks with dubious ROI.

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#7

Post by idopmstuff » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:27 PM UTC

"Please fill out the feature request form - that will create a ticket." Mark ticket P4.

In all seriousness, the best thing is to have management that clearly communicates what the high level company goals are on a quarterly (or whatever cadence is appropriate for your business) basis. People don't like to hear no, but they understand "the main objective for the quarter is to close $X in new deals in Y market segment, and since this isn't going to directly contribute to that, it's not going to be a priority in the near future."

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#8

Post by mr3martinis » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:28 PM UTC

This is great, can you make it into a slack app?

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#9

Post by kjellsbells » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:38 PM UTC

datadrivenangel wrote: post #2

There is a difference between a hard no (We are not doing that) and this softer no (We are not doing that but we are not committed to not doing that), and in less mature organizations that difference is important and very useful.

Yes, but here be dragons, especially in front of customers (B2B sales).

Sales Engineers for example are trained never to give the hard No to a customer request. Sometimes, they think they are saying no but the customer hears, "maybe". For example, "we'll consider adding that to the roadmap". Now the PM is stuck developing a single feature, the customer just got handed a stick to beat you with, and your CFO just got lumped with revenue thats unrecognize-able until some feature ships in who knows when.

Re: Master the Art of the Product Manager 'No'

#10

Post by roenxi » Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 9:39 PM UTC

gopalv wrote: post #3

This sort of advice is parodied in "Yes, Prime Minister" as the 4 step strategy for "crisis management" 1: Don't worry, nothing's going to happen. 2: Something may be happen but we should wait and see 3: Maybe we should do something about it, but there is no clear action 4: Maybe there was something we could've done, but it's too late now Stringing along a bunch of people who think they are being heard and listened t…

The Yes, Prime Minister advice is different. That 4-stage formula is for ignoring a crisis. The PM's No is advocating for working on tickets in priority order which will result in following the plan under a remarkably large number of situations. The two major differences are firstly that the YPM steps don't involve priorities at any stage. And secondly, the PM's No is a straightforward but a polite way of pointing out that the work being asked for is very low priority and so is unlikely to ever get time assigned to it.