FactSet Director of Product on The Pragmatist’s Guide to Product Management Ideals

How can PMs put product management ideals into practice when real-life circumstances require a pragmatic, balanced approach? Product Managers strive to follow ideals like implementing outcome-based roadmaps over feature-based ones, eliminating the HiPPO effect, not allowing Sales to dictate what to build, and making data-driven decisions at every step. But reality is messy. In this webinar, FactSet Director of Product Rico Fabello shares the pragmatist’s guide to product management ideals.

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Show Notes:

1. Find balance between ideals and pragmatism in product management.
2. Implement parallel outcome-based and feature-based roadmaps.
3. Tie day-to-day work to higher-level strategies and objectives.
4. Frame delays in the context of larger target outcomes.
5. Validate ideas from executives/sales just enough for conversation.
6. Identify and communicate risks of proposed changes.
7. Reframe feedback from executives (“hippos”) as collaborative rather than adversarial.
8. Challenge executives respectfully when needed.
9. Build relationships with salespeople early on.
10. Keep an eye on sales pipeline and reach out about major opportunities.
11. Set up meetings with salespeople managing high-value deals.
12. Ask salespeople for examples to back up requests.
13. Put the onus on salespeople to justify requests.
14. Make small, targeted changes to reduce unnecessary meetings/documentation.
15. Propose changes as experiments with measurable results.
16. Focus on business/customer outcomes over individual features.
17. Supplement data-driven decisions with reasonable conviction at times.
18. Recognize the importance of commercial success over just launching products.
19. Leverage the Jobs to be Done framework to understand customer needs.
20. Use strategy canvases to define strategies and align work.