Your Opinion Matters

As a Product Manager, I am regularly approached for my opinion on all things big and small. While I appreciate the trust my teams place on my role as the Product Owner, I often request all my cross functional partners for their opinion before we all decide a path forward. In the early days of my collaboration with new teams, this approach takes them by surprise. It is not often that engineers and program managers and designers are asked for an opinion. And I think that is something that needs to change for the success of the product.

Product Managers have the broadest perspective on the customer needs. But we are often less informed on some of the nuances of how hardware and software decisions can impact the user experience. These experience gaps are best articulated by the those closer to the component or the feature. Supported by good data from relevant experiments, these points of view from engineering (and any partner) teams can hugely influence the outcome of the decision and thus the product.

I have also observed that when all stakeholders are empowered to provide their perspective on the product while making key decisions, it makes for a healthy program and a productive workplace. This gives them a stake in the outcome while also allowing them to nurture the end user dimension of their work.

Every engineer and for that matter stakeholder involved in a product is in some sense a product manager. The scope of their vision while being a slice of the full product is still incredibly important as much and in many ways, as much the product manager. Being able to articulate their opinion and perspective, backed by suitable data and learning is valuable to the success of the product experience.

If you are a Product Manager, consider ways to not just ask your partner teams for data so you can make a decision but to listen to their unique perspective. And if you are an engineer or a program manager or a designer or any other product stakeholder, find ways to articulate your opinion. It is always more valuable than you give it credit for.

Great products are made not by a few opinionated people but through a strong collaboration between like-minded people motivated by the shared goal of a successful product launch.