Think through potential concerns about timelines, resources, risks, and competitive positioning.
Provide context, not just status : Help executives understand not just what's happening, but why it matters.
Explain the significance of progress or challenges in relation to company objectives.
Offer solutions, not just problems : When raising issues to senior leadership, come prepared with potential solutions or recommendations. This demonstrates proactive problem-solving.
Understand their metrics : Learn which metrics and KPIs matter most to different executives, and frame your updates in those terms when possible. Pro Tip!
Before important meetings with executives, prepare a "one-pager" that summarizes the key points.
Even if you don't share it, the exercise helps you distill your message to its essential elements.
Balancing competing stakeholder interests As a product manager, you'll often face conflicting priorities from different stakeholders.
Engineering wants quality code, sales pushes for faster delivery, marketing needs specific features, and executives have their high level business priorities in mind.
Spot the conflicts : Notice when stakeholders want different things.
Is sales promising features that engineering hasn't planned?
Does marketing want to promote features that aren't ready?
Seeing these conflicts is the first step to solving them.
Return to product goals : Use your product vision as your guide when resolving conflicts.
Level 4 · Execution, Stakeholders & Decisions