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

By: pjmasi

pjmasi — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:07:53 +0000

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.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:42:28 +0000

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

By: Product Management Reader: 17June09 | The Productologist: Exploring the Depths of Product Management

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:11:43 +0000

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

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:00:07 +0000

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

http://tiny.cc/i9mu4

Carl

By: Feature Requests From Customers Are Really About Unsolved Problems : Product Management Insights

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:53:31 +0000

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

By: PuristProductManagement

PuristProductManagement — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:17:59 +0000

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)

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:36:52 +0000

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.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:05:17 +0000

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

By: David Locke

David Locke — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:55:15 +0000

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.