Making Effective Product Decisions: Tips for Deciding with Stakeholders and Dev Teams
I am a big fan of making decisions collaboratively, as it leverages the expertise of the stakeholders and dev teams; it creates a shared understanding; and it generates stronger buy-in. But deciding together can be challenging: The most senior stakeholder might try to dictate the decision, the group might shy away from difficult conversations, or people might get stuck in endless debates without knowing how and when a decision will be made. This article shares eight practical tips to help you avoid these pitfalls and harness the full power of collaborative decision-making.
You can listen to the audio version of this article here: https://www.romanpichler.com/romans-podcasts/making-effective-product-decisions-tips-for-deciding-with-stakeholders-and-dev-teams/
Be Clear on When to Involve the Stakeholders and Development Teams
You can — and should — make many business-as-usual decisions on your own. Complex and high-impact decisions, however, are best made together with the stakeholders and development teams. There are two reasons for this: First, you usually require people’s expertise to help you tackle complex issues, for instance, to understand technical risks or the impact on the ability to market and sell the product. Second, you need strong support from the stakeholders and dev team members for high-impact decisions in order to ensure that they are effectively followed through. Involving the individuals in the decision-making process show them that you value their input, and it provides them with the opportunity to influence the decision. This, in turn, makes it more likely that they will support and implement the decision.
In practical terms, involve stakeholders and dev teams in decisions that affect the product strategy and the product roadmap — be it that you create the plans or that you make bigger changes to them. Examples of the latter include deciding if you should pivot, address a new market or market segment, retire a product, and if you should replace the product goals or change the dates on a product roadmap. Additionally, include the development team members in product backlog decisions, and always choose sprint goals together.
Bring the Right People Together
Once you’ve established that a decision should be made collaboratively, carefully consider who needs to be involved in the decision-making process to ensure that the right decision is made and that it receives the necessary support. Then invite the right people to a collaborative workshop, no matter if it takes place online or onsite. A joint workshop creates transparency; it allows the individuals to understand each other’s perspectives and interests; and it frees you from having to go forth and back between the individual stakeholders and dev teams until an agreeable proposal has finally been found.
If you are unsure which stakeholders you should involve, then carry out a stakeholder analysis using, for example, Ackermann and Eden’s power-interest grid shown below.
The grid encourages you to divide the stakeholders into four groups, as I explain in more detail in my article Getting Stakeholder Engagement Right. Once you have done this, focus on the players. These are the individuals whose input you need to make the right decision, who help you progress and offer the product, and who are affected by the product and its ability to create value. For a revenue-generating product, this might be someone from marketing, sales, support, and finance.
If you work with several development teams, ask each team to send one or two representatives to the workshop. I find it useful to have UX design, architecture, programming, and testing skills present to make the right decision. And in a scaled environment where you share product ownership, involve the product people who work with you, for example, feature owners.
Use a Dedicated Facilitator
When you bring people together to make a decision, getting the individuals to engage in a constructive conversation can be challenging, as you might have experienced yourself. Some individuals might enjoy sharing their ideas so much that they won’t stop talking. Others might be shy and reluctant to contribute, and senior members might expect that their suggestions are followed by everyone. What’s more, you are usually required to actively contribute to the decision and share your expertise, as the person in charge of the product.
I therefore recommend using a dedicated, skilled facilitator who runs the meeting and facilitates the decision-making process. This might be your Scrum Master, assuming that the role is filled, and that the individual has the skills required. The facilitator should establish ground rules, help people embrace a collaborative mindset, create an environment where people feel safe to speak their minds, encourage everyone to fully participate and prevent individuals from dominating, ensure that an appropriate decision rule has been chosen, and guide everyone through the decision-making process. Having a dedicated facilitator can be especially useful in an online workshop where people may need more encouragement to fully participate and stay engaged.
Lead by Example
Deciding together becomes difficult when people act in self-centered ways and aim to maximise their personal gain, seek to dominate the discussion, or believe that they know best and that their idea must win. What’s needed to develop an inclusive solution and reach a sustainable agreement is a collaborative mindset.
I therefore recommend that you lead by example, embrace a collaborative attitude, and show that you value the ideas and perspectives of the stakeholders and team members. The following three practices will help you with this: First, show a genuine interest in the perspectives and needs of all attendees — no matter how senior or junior they might be. Second, actively listen to the individuals, give everyone your full attention, and appreciate their contributions even if you disagree. Finally, keep an open mind. While it is important that you have your own perspective and ideas, hold them lightly. Cultivate a receptive and curious attitude and be open to what the stakeholders and development team members have to say.
Note that attentive listening and open-mindedness do not imply approval. But they make the other person feel understood and appreciated. What’s more, they are likely to free you from being biased towards your own preconceived ideas and help you take full advantage of the collective wisdom of the group in order to make the best possible decision.
Read On …
To read the rest of this article and access the remaining tips, please head over to my website: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/tips-for-deciding-with-stakeholders-and-dev-teams/
Learn More
You can learn more about collaborative decision-making and securing strong buy-in from the stakeholders and dev teams by attending my product leadership workshop and reading my book How to Lead in Product Management.
Source: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/tips-for-deciding-with-stakeholders-and-dev-teams/
