Presentation I made at Silicon Valley Product Camp 2013.

1. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK
Poornima Vijayashanker, @poornima, poornima@femgineer.com
CEO & Founder,
1

2. INTRODUCTION 2
POORNIMA VIJAYASHANKER
‣ Duke University - Electrical Engineer & Computer Science
‣ R&D Engineer @ Synopsys
‣ Founding Engineer @ Mint.com
‣ CEO & Founder BizeeBee
‣ Founder of Femgineer
2

3. AGENDA 3
‣ Life of a Product Manager
‣ How to Effectively Deal with Push Back
‣ How to Get Buy-In
3

4. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 4
Life of a product manager...
4

5. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 5
5

6. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 6
Product Manager
Coordinate Innovate No authority...
6

7. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 7
Management
Product Manager
Employees
7

8. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 8
8

9. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 9
Goal is to give PMs strategies for dealing with push back
& methods for getting buy-in.
9

10. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 10
Use to improve process and build innovative products.
10

11. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 11
SOME NECESSARY CONDITIONS
‣ Pulse on Customer
‣ adoption, engagement, retention, and monetization
‣ Understand business goals
‣ if unclear, push to have priorities
11

12. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 12
FOCUS ISN’T
‣ consensus building.
‣ assuming that the strategies will work overnight anywhere!
12

13. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 13
Your goal is to be free to have your ideas heard, adopted,
and put a process in place to build innovative products.
Supplemental Reading: How Am I Going To Move My Product Forward Today?
13

14. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 14
PUSH BACK
Supplemental Reading: How to Prepare for Push Back
14

15. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 15
WHY DO EMPLOYEES PUSH BACK?
‣ Overwork
‣ Missed deadlines
‣ Lack of appreciation and feeling resentment
‣ Voice is not heard and suggestions are often shot down
15

16. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 16
WHY DOES MANAGEMENT PUSH BACK?
‣ Conflicting or unclear business goals
‣ Aggressive business goals
‣ Unclear results or benefits
‣ Managing risk
16

17. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 17
Storytime.
17

18. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 18
POOR DECISION MAKING
‣ hastily made
‣ doesn’t account for relevant info
‣ causes loss of TRUST
Supplemental Reading: The Art of Decision Making as a Product Manager
18

19. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 19
Alignment Communication
19

20. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 20
Start with communication, not meetings!
20

21. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 21
UNDERSTAND CONTEXT
‣ Understand current state
‣ What is desired state
‣ What work before and why
‣ What isn’t working and possibly why
21

22. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 22
Brainstorm a solution with individuals.
22

23. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 23
START WITH A SMALL SOLUTION
‣ factor in constraints: budget, time, size of organization
‣ do not force change
‣ marry anecdotes with metrics
‣ formulate pitch
‣ list benefits
‣ consequences of inaction
23

24. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 24
Postmortem is necessary for any process change.
Supplemental Reading: Small Changes, Big Rewards: How Etsy Embraces
Continuous Experimentation
24

25. “You have to be agile in your
approach to agile.”
John Quinn
VP of Engineering at Gilt Group
25

26. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 26
BUY-IN
26

27. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 27
What is buy-in?
27

28. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 28
Why do you need it?
28

29. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 29
When do we need to get buy-in?
29

30. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 30
How do we get buy-in?
30

31. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 31
31

32. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 32
UNDERSTAND CONTEXT
‣ Understand business goals
‣ If unclear push back
‣ Understand department goals and goals of other departs
‣ Work to find alignment
‣ target tradition naysayers
‣ dig into objections
‣ compile list and address one at a time
32

33. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 33
Combine storytelling with metrics.
33

34. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 34
“Whew this is a LOT of work.”
34

35. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 35
Your goal is to be free to have your ideas heard, adopted,
and put a process in place to build innovative products.
35

36. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 36
Initiate a bite-size sale.
36

37. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 37
Going in for the close.
37

38. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 38
PRESENT PROPOSAL
‣ Check for objections again
‣ Reiterate value proposition
‣ Explain consequences of inaction
38

39. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 39
Periodically take pulse.
39

40. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 40
Storytime.
40

41. REVIEW 41
‣ Life of a Product Manager
‣ How to Effectively Deal with Push Back
‣ How to Get Buy-In
41

42. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 42
Lean Product Development Course
Office Hours
Thursdays & Fridays 2pm PST
Sign up for a 30 minute slot here!
42

43. HOW TO GET BUY-IN AND DEAL WITH PUSH BACK 43
Q&A
43