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Product Manager Mock Interview: Advocating for a New Feature
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your largest customer is loudly
advocating for a new feature which is
not on your prioritized roadmap however
sales who are eager to please have gone
straight to engineering to see if they
can drop everything and get this done
what do you do [Music]
[Music]
hey everyone welcome back to another
exponent product management mock
interview today we're going to be doing
a cross-functional collaboration
question with Matt and before we get
started Matt why don't you just
introduce yourself real quick
sure hi I'm Matt suskind I'm a long time
product management coach here with
exponent uh I've worked at Google and a
number of small startups throughout my
career and excited to be here awesome so
for today's cross-functional
collaboration question this is what I'd
like to ask
let's say your largest customer is
loudly advocating for a new feature
which is not on your prioritized roadmap
however sales who are eager to please
have gone straight to engineering to see
if they can drop everything and get this
done what do you do
okay got it so just to repeat that back
uh sales uh has gotten requests from a
large customer for a feature and you
know in wanting to please them they've
gone straight to engineering uh to ask
that we can do this if we can do this
even though it's not on our roadmap is
that correct right
okay great
um give me just a moment to think about this
this
um and then I can get into you know how
it how I'd approach that situation cool
okay cool
um so uh you know given the situation
um first you know I just want to explain
how I'm thinking about this you know
what I think is important uh to you know
as a PM to to be aware of here
um so obviously you know sales wants to
get this done but uh you know
engineering you know can't just they
can't just go directly to them and then
change the priorities of what we have
you know we kind of have to talk this
over and so you know this is going to
have to be a larger discussion than just
you know sales getting this prioritized
right away and so you know as we go into
those discussions I'm going to be trying
to balance you know the long-term sense
of the product direction and you know
all these things that we've decided on
our roadmap what we think is important
versus you know if maybe there is some
kind of urgent need here
um you know and you know the the
cross-functional nature of making sales
happy and you know also keeping the
customer happy
um you know as a PM my initial bias is
towards trying to maintain that road map
because of you know our long-term
strategy but you know there there could
be mitigating factors there so we'll
have to explore that so
so
um you know briefly the way that I'm
going to approach this um
um
first you know I have to understand the
request I have to understand uh you know
uh what they're asking for and how
important it is and then once we get a
sense of that we can then make a
decision about how we actually go
through uh and deal with this process
whether we decide we want to build this
or uh or not so in order to understand
that request uh some of the things we're
going to have to understand are you know
why are they asking for this right I
don't want to just jump into building
some feature just because a customer
asked for it because they might be
asking for what they think they need
when there's actually a better way to
handle it and so there is a happy path
possible here where a customer is asking
for this feature when we understand
their need we realize we can either
already serve that or
um you know it's actually similar to
something else we're doing on the
roadmap and you know we could maybe even
reshuffle a bit of the priorities in
order to address that need so it's
really about getting you know that idea
of getting to the root of what the
problem is
um something else to consider is you
know do we actually have to build this
or is there some way that we could find
a bridge solution right where uh you
know if it's not that uh heavy of uh a
load maybe there's something slightly
manual that you know uh one of our team
members could do in the meantime right
if they need some kind of data dump on a
weekly basis and it takes you know 30
minutes an hour just to put that
together it's not ideal but if this is a
large enough customer you know that
could be worth it so really just
understanding you know what uh what's
being asked here um
um
another thing we could also explore here
is just you know how have they gone by
without it so far uh they're obviously
already a customer of ours and you know
not to say that like they don't really
need this but at the very least just
understanding what they're doing instead
right now will also help us understand
you know what exactly those requirements
are what uh would be expected of us
the other thing to get into here is the
importance of this request uh you know
is this customer strategically important
to us uh you know are they a very large
customer of ours you know if they're 80
of our business and if we don't make
them happy they're going to leave you
know obviously that's an existential
threat to our company uh but you know if
they're only slightly larger than any
other customer and you know they're very
happy with us and they're just making
this request maybe not that important uh
you know is sales trying to keep them
from churning uh does sales see a large
upsell potential is there internal
pressure on sales to sell more
um you know getting a sense of all of
this will help me understand why the
sales care about this so much you know
uh how important is it for us to
actually find a way to get this done
um you know in most cases unless it's
actually strategically important or you
know critical to the company again I'm
probably going to bias towards not
wanting to to uh you know
push out our road map but you know this
is uh
this obviously could be uh very
important so that's interesting let's
say that this indeed is a very large and
strategic customer that we can't lose
and let's say that you've looked at the
road map there's nothing else on the
road map that can alleviate their
problem and this needs to be a solution
that needs to be built by engineering
it's not like some trivial like data
dump that can be done weekly
um you go to the the customer and you
say like sorry we can't do this and the
customers have like very not pleased
about this so what would you do there yeah
yeah
um it's a great uh question uh
unfortunately you know these kind of
things do happen on one hand if they are
so strategically important we may
actually have to go ahead and do that
and that's a larger conversation I can
get into that separately
um but in the case where we're saying no
uh you know even though these are
important you know we it's probably
because we see some larger value in
continuing our uh you know our path
right we have a larger strategic Vision
we see that there's value there and then
uh distracting ourselves by building out
this feature even though it's for an
important customer uh you know it seems
like in this case we decide that that's
just not worth it and so the first step
here is you know it's not my
relationship with the customer directly
right that's sales that uh owns a lot of
that or you know customer success and so
uh you know I definitely want to be
partnering with them in this and
hopefully I could have this conversation
with sales you know before I'm talking
to the customer directly and letting
them know hey this is why we can't do
this this is where we're trying to go
these are the kinds of things things
that we can you know do to help them or
you know you know at least you know make things
things
uh less difficult for them but we're
just not going to be able to build this
and there's not really a great way to
support that need that they have
um and one I expect sales is not going
to be super happy with that but you know
hopefully we can find some common ground
make it you know make sure that there
are open lines of communications and
ways for them to get things prioritized
or at least let us know what our make
sure that we know what our the customers
are really asking for
um because you know we want sales to
feel like they're involved with this and
obviously the success of the product
overall is not just building things but
also the ability for you know sales to
get out there and uh get it to customers
uh so
for the customer themselves
uh you know it it really does depend on
the customer and you know
if this thing isn't uh
that important to them but they're still
upset about it you know we probably have
to find some way to just you know maybe
we could make it up to them in some way
or you know
depending exactly on the Dynamics like
you know how much margin we have on this
or you know how exactly our our product
is charged maybe we give them a free
month or something if they're really
upset just to you know keep them from
turning acknowledge that like hey we
heard your request and we really do care
about it but you know it's just not
something that we can support
um if you know this is critical to them
but we we really can't do it you know
ideally we can keep them and ideally we
could like figure out a way with them to
to keep them involved but you know not
every customer makes sense and if their
needs have changed and our Direction has
changed from where they wanted us to go
you know
sometimes there does need to be a
parting of ways because it just it
doesn't make sense ideally we don't you
know if you're saying they're
strategically important or you know
we're making a lot of money that
supports our future growth you know that
that's hard but uh if we believe in that
Vision it might be necessary not that
we're going to push them to leave but I
think just internally we we might need
to acknowledge that even if you know I'm
sure sales and uh you know are Revenue
focused teams might not be as happy with
that yeah makes a lot of sense um I
think uh that that's a very good answer
for now um if you were to just to
quickly summarize like the steps that
you would take how would you summarize that
that yeah
yeah
um so basically overall uh first comes
that you know just making sense of my
own feelings about this and you know
kind of how I need to approach it then
it comes into understanding you know all
the context around this what the request
is what matters all of that and then
there comes in this process of actually
working with the team to figure this out
as we're going through that
understanding process of course I'm
talking to all these stakeholders so
it's not like my thoughts or the process
we're taking is coming out of the blue
right ideally I've been setting this up
as I've been going through it right
sales has been getting context about why
we might not be able to do it or what we
think is important uh engineering on the
flip side if we do have to build this
out right they've been involved you know
uh to some extent so that they know that
this might be coming and then if we
decide that we do have to do this it's
not a shock that all of a sudden we're
completely changing direction but you
know they've kind of been primed and
understand why this is important
um we didn't really get into the path
where you know sales escalates and we do
have to do it or you know we realize wow
this really is important or this
actually is a surprisingly this is a
good idea that you know we weren't considering
considering
in that case you know we'll have to work
closely with the english team obviously
to figure out how we can support this or
what needs to be shifted out in order to
do this that's a discussion with our
leadership as well since you know we're
going to be changing uh you know the
delivery of of some of the things we
probably thought were strategically important
important
um but happy to dive into that further
if you want but uh yeah that's that's
the overview cool
um I think we're good for now um thanks
for the answer and I think maybe like
one other thing I would have added would
be to compare this request versus all
the other requests for maybe our like
top 10 or top 20 customers and see if
they're also facing the same problem how
are they working around that
um I think that'd be an interesting
conversation one helpful way to
prioritize as well
yeah that definitely makes sense
um you know I
certainly as the requests be are coming
in from customers you know you should be
using that to help determine uh it
should be a factor in your roadmap
planning of of course right like these
are the things that your customers are
asking for and sure they may not have
the full sense of where you're going but
obviously that customer feedback is
important totally and I think most
Enterprise companies also have
Professional Services where if the
customer really wants something they
could pay extra yeah there's like some
uh you know like ad hoc work that could
be done yeah that was one of the things
I was going to mention if we went down
that path of okay we are building this
um you know obviously we have to look at
the resources we have on the team and
you know if we have to split the team
it's not ideal but could get it done but
maybe the best case there is if the you
know if we have some contractors that we
could spin up that are familiar with us
and the customer is willing to pay for
that then sure you know we could build
that out for them and it doesn't disrupt
our roadmap
um but you know that's again one of
those best cases but if it's really
important to them uh might be possible cool
cool
um just to wrap things up Matt do you
have like one tip that you would give to
the audience if they're preparing for a
cross-functional collaboration question yeah
yeah um
um
I think probably the biggest tip is just
to remember that it's about that
cross-functional collaboration right so
you should be keeping in mind how am I
engaging with stakeholders how am I
engaging with you know everyone involved
in this process
um it's easy to look at this and go from
my PM perspective this is what I think
is most important so this is the
decision we have to make but you have to
think beyond that and how do I
communicate about that decision who am I
working with to do this uh how am I
making sure that they're still happy
right I can make whatever decision but I
don't want to alienate my sales team or
my Edge team or anyone else uh by uh you
know not involving them in that process
cool cool awesome well thanks Matt and
for the audience watching at home good
luck with your upcoming PM interview
thanks so much for watching don't forget
to hit the like And subscribe buttons
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thanks for watching and good luck on
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