0:01 your largest customer is loudly
0:04 advocating for a new feature which is
0:06 not on your prioritized roadmap however
0:09 sales who are eager to please have gone
0:10 straight to engineering to see if they
0:12 can drop everything and get this done
0:14 what do you do [Music]
0:16 [Music]
0:18 hey everyone welcome back to another
0:20 exponent product management mock
0:22 interview today we're going to be doing
0:24 a cross-functional collaboration
0:26 question with Matt and before we get
0:27 started Matt why don't you just
0:29 introduce yourself real quick
0:31 sure hi I'm Matt suskind I'm a long time
0:33 product management coach here with
0:37 exponent uh I've worked at Google and a
0:39 number of small startups throughout my
0:43 career and excited to be here awesome so
0:45 for today's cross-functional
0:46 collaboration question this is what I'd
0:47 like to ask
0:49 let's say your largest customer is
0:51 loudly advocating for a new feature
0:53 which is not on your prioritized roadmap
0:56 however sales who are eager to please
0:58 have gone straight to engineering to see
0:59 if they can drop everything and get this
1:02 done what do you do
1:06 okay got it so just to repeat that back
1:09 uh sales uh has gotten requests from a
1:12 large customer for a feature and you
1:14 know in wanting to please them they've
1:16 gone straight to engineering uh to ask
1:18 that we can do this if we can do this
1:20 even though it's not on our roadmap is
1:21 that correct right
1:24 okay great
1:25 um give me just a moment to think about this
1:26 this
1:28 um and then I can get into you know how
1:30 it how I'd approach that situation cool
1:38 okay cool
1:43 um so uh you know given the situation
1:45 um first you know I just want to explain
1:46 how I'm thinking about this you know
1:49 what I think is important uh to you know
1:52 as a PM to to be aware of here
1:54 um so obviously you know sales wants to
1:57 get this done but uh you know
1:59 engineering you know can't just they
2:01 can't just go directly to them and then
2:03 change the priorities of what we have
2:04 you know we kind of have to talk this
2:06 over and so you know this is going to
2:07 have to be a larger discussion than just
2:09 you know sales getting this prioritized
2:12 right away and so you know as we go into
2:14 those discussions I'm going to be trying
2:16 to balance you know the long-term sense
2:18 of the product direction and you know
2:19 all these things that we've decided on
2:21 our roadmap what we think is important
2:24 versus you know if maybe there is some
2:26 kind of urgent need here
2:28 um you know and you know the the
2:30 cross-functional nature of making sales
2:32 happy and you know also keeping the
2:33 customer happy
2:36 um you know as a PM my initial bias is
2:37 towards trying to maintain that road map
2:39 because of you know our long-term
2:42 strategy but you know there there could
2:44 be mitigating factors there so we'll
2:45 have to explore that so
2:47 so
2:49 um you know briefly the way that I'm
2:52 going to approach this um
2:54 um
2:56 first you know I have to understand the
2:58 request I have to understand uh you know
3:00 uh what they're asking for and how
3:03 important it is and then once we get a
3:04 sense of that we can then make a
3:06 decision about how we actually go
3:07 through uh and deal with this process
3:09 whether we decide we want to build this
3:13 or uh or not so in order to understand
3:16 that request uh some of the things we're
3:18 going to have to understand are you know
3:21 why are they asking for this right I
3:23 don't want to just jump into building
3:24 some feature just because a customer
3:26 asked for it because they might be
3:28 asking for what they think they need
3:29 when there's actually a better way to
3:32 handle it and so there is a happy path
3:34 possible here where a customer is asking
3:35 for this feature when we understand
3:37 their need we realize we can either
3:40 already serve that or
3:41 um you know it's actually similar to
3:42 something else we're doing on the
3:45 roadmap and you know we could maybe even
3:47 reshuffle a bit of the priorities in
3:48 order to address that need so it's
3:51 really about getting you know that idea
3:52 of getting to the root of what the
3:54 problem is
3:56 um something else to consider is you
3:57 know do we actually have to build this
3:59 or is there some way that we could find
4:02 a bridge solution right where uh you
4:06 know if it's not that uh heavy of uh a
4:08 load maybe there's something slightly
4:10 manual that you know uh one of our team
4:11 members could do in the meantime right
4:13 if they need some kind of data dump on a
4:15 weekly basis and it takes you know 30
4:17 minutes an hour just to put that
4:19 together it's not ideal but if this is a
4:20 large enough customer you know that
4:22 could be worth it so really just
4:26 understanding you know what uh what's
4:28 being asked here um
4:28 um
4:30 another thing we could also explore here
4:31 is just you know how have they gone by
4:34 without it so far uh they're obviously
4:37 already a customer of ours and you know
4:39 not to say that like they don't really
4:41 need this but at the very least just
4:42 understanding what they're doing instead
4:44 right now will also help us understand
4:46 you know what exactly those requirements
4:49 are what uh would be expected of us
4:51 the other thing to get into here is the
4:53 importance of this request uh you know
4:55 is this customer strategically important
4:59 to us uh you know are they a very large
5:00 customer of ours you know if they're 80
5:02 of our business and if we don't make
5:04 them happy they're going to leave you
5:06 know obviously that's an existential
5:09 threat to our company uh but you know if
5:11 they're only slightly larger than any
5:14 other customer and you know they're very
5:15 happy with us and they're just making
5:19 this request maybe not that important uh
5:20 you know is sales trying to keep them
5:22 from churning uh does sales see a large
5:24 upsell potential is there internal
5:27 pressure on sales to sell more
5:29 um you know getting a sense of all of
5:32 this will help me understand why the
5:34 sales care about this so much you know
5:37 uh how important is it for us to
5:41 actually find a way to get this done
5:43 um you know in most cases unless it's
5:45 actually strategically important or you
5:47 know critical to the company again I'm
5:49 probably going to bias towards not
5:51 wanting to to uh you know
5:54 push out our road map but you know this
5:56 is uh
5:58 this obviously could be uh very
6:01 important so that's interesting let's
6:03 say that this indeed is a very large and
6:05 strategic customer that we can't lose
6:08 and let's say that you've looked at the
6:10 road map there's nothing else on the
6:12 road map that can alleviate their
6:13 problem and this needs to be a solution
6:15 that needs to be built by engineering
6:17 it's not like some trivial like data
6:19 dump that can be done weekly
6:20 um you go to the the customer and you
6:22 say like sorry we can't do this and the
6:24 customers have like very not pleased
6:27 about this so what would you do there yeah
6:29 yeah
6:31 um it's a great uh question uh
6:33 unfortunately you know these kind of
6:35 things do happen on one hand if they are
6:37 so strategically important we may
6:38 actually have to go ahead and do that
6:40 and that's a larger conversation I can
6:42 get into that separately
6:44 um but in the case where we're saying no
6:46 uh you know even though these are
6:47 important you know we it's probably
6:49 because we see some larger value in
6:52 continuing our uh you know our path
6:54 right we have a larger strategic Vision
6:56 we see that there's value there and then
6:58 uh distracting ourselves by building out
6:59 this feature even though it's for an
7:02 important customer uh you know it seems
7:03 like in this case we decide that that's
7:06 just not worth it and so the first step
7:08 here is you know it's not my
7:10 relationship with the customer directly
7:13 right that's sales that uh owns a lot of
7:15 that or you know customer success and so
7:17 uh you know I definitely want to be
7:18 partnering with them in this and
7:20 hopefully I could have this conversation
7:21 with sales you know before I'm talking
7:23 to the customer directly and letting
7:25 them know hey this is why we can't do
7:26 this this is where we're trying to go
7:28 these are the kinds of things things
7:31 that we can you know do to help them or
7:33 you know you know at least you know make things
7:34 things
7:37 uh less difficult for them but we're
7:38 just not going to be able to build this
7:39 and there's not really a great way to
7:42 support that need that they have
7:43 um and one I expect sales is not going
7:45 to be super happy with that but you know
7:47 hopefully we can find some common ground
7:50 make it you know make sure that there
7:51 are open lines of communications and
7:53 ways for them to get things prioritized
7:55 or at least let us know what our make
7:57 sure that we know what our the customers
7:58 are really asking for
8:01 um because you know we want sales to
8:03 feel like they're involved with this and
8:04 obviously the success of the product
8:06 overall is not just building things but
8:08 also the ability for you know sales to
8:11 get out there and uh get it to customers
8:13 uh so
8:16 for the customer themselves
8:19 uh you know it it really does depend on
8:21 the customer and you know
8:24 if this thing isn't uh
8:27 that important to them but they're still
8:28 upset about it you know we probably have
8:30 to find some way to just you know maybe
8:32 we could make it up to them in some way
8:34 or you know
8:36 depending exactly on the Dynamics like
8:38 you know how much margin we have on this
8:40 or you know how exactly our our product
8:42 is charged maybe we give them a free
8:43 month or something if they're really
8:45 upset just to you know keep them from
8:47 turning acknowledge that like hey we
8:48 heard your request and we really do care
8:49 about it but you know it's just not
8:52 something that we can support
8:54 um if you know this is critical to them
8:57 but we we really can't do it you know
8:59 ideally we can keep them and ideally we
9:01 could like figure out a way with them to
9:03 to keep them involved but you know not
9:05 every customer makes sense and if their
9:09 needs have changed and our Direction has
9:10 changed from where they wanted us to go
9:12 you know
9:14 sometimes there does need to be a
9:16 parting of ways because it just it
9:18 doesn't make sense ideally we don't you
9:19 know if you're saying they're
9:20 strategically important or you know
9:22 we're making a lot of money that
9:24 supports our future growth you know that
9:27 that's hard but uh if we believe in that
9:30 Vision it might be necessary not that
9:32 we're going to push them to leave but I
9:33 think just internally we we might need
9:35 to acknowledge that even if you know I'm
9:39 sure sales and uh you know are Revenue
9:40 focused teams might not be as happy with
9:43 that yeah makes a lot of sense um I
9:45 think uh that that's a very good answer
9:46 for now um if you were to just to
9:48 quickly summarize like the steps that
9:50 you would take how would you summarize that
9:51 that yeah
9:52 yeah
9:57 um so basically overall uh first comes
9:58 that you know just making sense of my
10:00 own feelings about this and you know
10:02 kind of how I need to approach it then
10:04 it comes into understanding you know all
10:06 the context around this what the request
10:08 is what matters all of that and then
10:10 there comes in this process of actually
10:12 working with the team to figure this out
10:13 as we're going through that
10:14 understanding process of course I'm
10:16 talking to all these stakeholders so
10:19 it's not like my thoughts or the process
10:20 we're taking is coming out of the blue
10:22 right ideally I've been setting this up
10:24 as I've been going through it right
10:25 sales has been getting context about why
10:27 we might not be able to do it or what we
10:30 think is important uh engineering on the
10:31 flip side if we do have to build this
10:34 out right they've been involved you know
10:37 uh to some extent so that they know that
10:38 this might be coming and then if we
10:40 decide that we do have to do this it's
10:42 not a shock that all of a sudden we're
10:44 completely changing direction but you
10:45 know they've kind of been primed and
10:48 understand why this is important
10:49 um we didn't really get into the path
10:51 where you know sales escalates and we do
10:54 have to do it or you know we realize wow
10:55 this really is important or this
10:58 actually is a surprisingly this is a
11:00 good idea that you know we weren't considering
11:01 considering
11:04 in that case you know we'll have to work
11:06 closely with the english team obviously
11:08 to figure out how we can support this or
11:10 what needs to be shifted out in order to
11:11 do this that's a discussion with our
11:13 leadership as well since you know we're
11:15 going to be changing uh you know the
11:17 delivery of of some of the things we
11:18 probably thought were strategically important
11:19 important
11:21 um but happy to dive into that further
11:23 if you want but uh yeah that's that's
11:25 the overview cool
11:27 um I think we're good for now um thanks
11:28 for the answer and I think maybe like
11:30 one other thing I would have added would
11:33 be to compare this request versus all
11:34 the other requests for maybe our like
11:37 top 10 or top 20 customers and see if
11:39 they're also facing the same problem how
11:41 are they working around that
11:42 um I think that'd be an interesting
11:44 conversation one helpful way to
11:45 prioritize as well
11:48 yeah that definitely makes sense
11:49 um you know I
11:52 certainly as the requests be are coming
11:53 in from customers you know you should be
11:57 using that to help determine uh it
11:58 should be a factor in your roadmap
12:01 planning of of course right like these
12:02 are the things that your customers are
12:03 asking for and sure they may not have
12:04 the full sense of where you're going but
12:06 obviously that customer feedback is
12:08 important totally and I think most
12:10 Enterprise companies also have
12:11 Professional Services where if the
12:13 customer really wants something they
12:15 could pay extra yeah there's like some
12:17 uh you know like ad hoc work that could
12:19 be done yeah that was one of the things
12:20 I was going to mention if we went down
12:23 that path of okay we are building this
12:24 um you know obviously we have to look at
12:26 the resources we have on the team and
12:27 you know if we have to split the team
12:29 it's not ideal but could get it done but
12:31 maybe the best case there is if the you
12:33 know if we have some contractors that we
12:35 could spin up that are familiar with us
12:37 and the customer is willing to pay for
12:39 that then sure you know we could build
12:41 that out for them and it doesn't disrupt
12:43 our roadmap
12:45 um but you know that's again one of
12:46 those best cases but if it's really
12:48 important to them uh might be possible cool
12:49 cool
12:51 um just to wrap things up Matt do you
12:52 have like one tip that you would give to
12:54 the audience if they're preparing for a
12:57 cross-functional collaboration question yeah
12:58 yeah um
12:59 um
13:00 I think probably the biggest tip is just
13:01 to remember that it's about that
13:03 cross-functional collaboration right so
13:05 you should be keeping in mind how am I
13:06 engaging with stakeholders how am I
13:08 engaging with you know everyone involved
13:10 in this process
13:12 um it's easy to look at this and go from
13:13 my PM perspective this is what I think
13:14 is most important so this is the
13:17 decision we have to make but you have to
13:19 think beyond that and how do I
13:21 communicate about that decision who am I
13:23 working with to do this uh how am I
13:24 making sure that they're still happy
13:27 right I can make whatever decision but I
13:28 don't want to alienate my sales team or
13:32 my Edge team or anyone else uh by uh you
13:34 know not involving them in that process
13:37 cool cool awesome well thanks Matt and
13:39 for the audience watching at home good
13:42 luck with your upcoming PM interview
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