Better Product Managers, and Product Management

Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests (with Justification)

June 10th, 2009

There is no contradiction in saying “listen to your customers” and “you own the product vision”.

You will get lots of requests for features from your customers (and from your sales team, and from execs within your company). Most of them, if you implemented them as-is, would be at best a waste of developer resources and money.

But it’s rarely an option to just ignore them, or keep de-prioritizing them to next release cycle – many requests for solutions are obscured insights into problems.  It’s your job as a product manager to think about those problems and figure out which ones are compatible with your longer-term strategy.

Here’s how you say “no” and make it stick:

  1. Acknowledge the feature request (using the requestor’s own words)
  2. Explain the problem that lead to this request.  (may need to ask the requestor to clarify their request, but this is your synthesis)
  3. Describe the cost (in developer hours, lost opportunity cost, investment in obsolete technology, etc.)
  4. Show lack of connection to the product/company vision
  5. Acknowledge consequences of simply ignoring request
  6. Define actionable next steps (turn it into an opportunity)

Download the template (with example features)

This framework puts the focus on the product vision – the equivalent of asking everyone, “What are we here to do? Does this help us do that? No? Then why would we do it?”  (Cue Herb Kelleher story about no damn chicken salad sandwiches.)

It also highlights problems rather than features (proposed solutions).  Features can often be incompatible with a strategy even when the problem is very relevant.  It’s our job to listen.  Tackle that feature prioritization list and start saying no!

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Popularity: 7% [?]
  • David Locke

    As the CEO, I’d just get sales reps and other execs to bring their feature requests to me. I wouldn’t communicate them down to my PM. The execs would know better. And, I’d probably have the sales rep moved to my end of career sales manager, as in “Glendary Rose.”

    Requests from sales reps are just excuses.

    The above advice is great if you have to fight this battle, and the roadmap battle, but wouldn’t it be easier if the CEO took some responsibility.

  • http://www.productmarketing.com Steve Johnson

    I find the key to product management is patterns. You can’t see a pattern in an individual request; you need to look at many requests to see what the real problem is and what the best solution would be.

    Thanks for sharing these tips on saying “no” to distractions from the strategy.

    Steve

  • Cindy

    Steve – Absolutely agree that patterns are more informative.

    37Signals takes this to an extreme, saying they don’t even maintain a feature request list because “if it’s important, it will keep coming up”.

    I think small companies, especially in the enterprise space, may not have the luxury of waiting for patterns to emerge.

    That’s why I emphasize identifying “what’s the REAL underlying problem” – so that you’re primed to recognize the pattern without waiting for a lot of datapoints.

  • http://www.puristproductmanagement.blogspot.com PuristProductManagement

    Thanks for this, its a useful guide. The key is empowering product management for some organisations. I get the sense that this is pretty common place in the states but in the UK we’re still waiting for you to sneeze (so we can catch the cold)

  • http://www.accompa.com/product-management-blog/2009/06/10/feature-requests-from-customers-are-really-about-unsolved-problems/ Feature Requests From Customers Are Really About Unsolved Problems : Product Management Insights

    [...] I recently read a nice post by Cindy Alvarez in her blog -  Saying “No” to… Feature Requests [...]

  • http://www.carlknibbs.net Carl

    I tihnk you are right, it’s essentially about extracting the wheat from the chaff. Blogged on this subject….

    http://tiny.cc/i9mu4

    Carl

  • http://www.theproductologist.com/index.php/2009/06/17/product-management-reader-17june09/ Product Management Reader: 17June09 | The Productologist: Exploring the Depths of Product Management

    [...] Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests (with Justification) [The Experience is the Product] [...]

  • http://www.productmarketing.com/ Steve Johnson

    I find the key to product management is patterns. You can't see a pattern in an individual request; you need to look at many requests to see what the real problem is and what the best solution would be.

    Thanks for sharing these tips on saying “no” to distractions from the strategy.

    Steve

  • http://twitter.com/pjmasi pjmasi

    Showing the lost opportunity cost is a tricky thing though, isn't it? Many times this boils down to an argument of the PM saying “the market opportunity is this very high number” and the sales team countering “maybe so, but I've got this customer on the hook for a medium-sized number right now”. Depending on how frequently customers make purchase decisions, you might not have the luxury of ignoring the short-term revenue jolt that's on the table.

  • http://twitter.com/cindyalvarez cindyalvarez

    New blog post: Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests (with Justification) http://sn.im/ju6zb #prodmgmt #roadmap

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/aprildunford aprildunford

    RT @cindyalvarez Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests (with Justification) http://sn.im/ju6zb #prodmgmt Love this post.

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/DavidWLocke DavidWLocke

    Commented on The Experience is the Product post “Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests,” http://bit.ly/s0bHA

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/haigtweets haigtweets

    RT @cindyalvarez: New blog post: Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Reqs (w/Justification) http://sn.im/ju6zb #prodmgmt #roadmap

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/chenelaine chenelaine

    RT @cindyalvarez Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests (with Justification) http://sn.im/ju6zb #prodmgmt #roadmap

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/CarlKnibbs CarlKnibbs

    More on saying No http://bit.ly/8pvd5

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/roneneyal roneneyal

    It’s time we learn to (also) say ‘No’! RT @chenelaine: RT @cindyalvarez Saying No (with Justification) http://sn.im/ju6zb #prodmgmt

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • yo

    a ver si en vez de colorear zapatillas hablamos un poco de fernando Peña que acaba de dejarnos

    This comment was originally posted on http://eblog.com.ar/)“>eBlog

  • Frazier

    reebok se empeña en imitar a Nike. Un creativo por ahi… por favor

    This comment was originally posted on http://eblog.com.ar/)“>eBlog

  • http://www.seguroderesponsabilidadcivil.com/ Rayban

    gran articulo

    saludos

    This comment was originally posted on http://eblog.com.ar/)“>eBlog

  • http://www.lafemmecristina.wordpress.com/ Romix!

    Bien por reebok. Esta gente entendio la diferencia entre la necesidad de tener o usar tales o cuales zapatillas y el placer que genera personalizar un objeto de deseo.

    This comment was originally posted on http://eblog.com.ar/)“>eBlog

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