Power moves to persuade top leadership to champion an outcome-led approach
Are you a product leader or a feature factory manager? It's time to redefine your role.
You're ready to embrace the power of outcome-led, empowered teams - but there's a hitch. Your boss piles on pressure to churn out more features quicker, and some of your team are resistant to change. Yet, you're convinced that this new approach will lead to greater impact with less waste for the business. It's a no-brainer, right? But for some unfathomable reason, stakeholders just aren't on board. Sound familiar? This is a common conundrum that leaves many product leaders frustrated - and seeking my help.
Transforming your approach is no small feat. It demands immense effort, the development of outcome habits, and a mastery of influence and motivation. It's a vast topic, so let's start by exploring one crucial outcome habit - collaborative influence.
Not only is collaborative influence a game-changer when dealing with your teams and stakeholders, but it also proves invaluable when interacting with those who hold strong, even arrogant or narcissistic, beliefs. Let's dive in and unlock the power of collaborative influence.
“Do we need to build awesome products?”
Not everyone fully embraces the idea that solving customers' problems better than anyone else leads to business success. This clash of paradigms often leads to frustration among those navigating this space. I remember a chairman once asking me, "Do we really need to create an exceptional product to drive growth?" This question suggested that adopting an outcome-led or empowered product approach might not be necessary. While it's true that many companies with mediocre products still turn a profit, imagine the heights they could reach if their products were truly outstanding.
In numerous companies, the "product" team finds themselves being told what to build, stifling their potential. This reality is deeply frustrating for product professionals who yearn to fulfil their roles to the fullest. Product leaders often share tales of being at the mercy of the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinion) or feeling constrained by underpowered product managers, a narrative all too common in today's landscape. For example,
“The trading team tell us what to build and by when, how is my team meant to do product management?”
“We keep building features no one uses, but apparently they are vital for sales to close deals.”
“The senior leadership team, who complain the business is missing targets, prioritise features in a big spreadsheet, we then deliver them. Apparently, the problem is we don’t build these features fast enough”
A company killer is a SaaS business behaving like an agency
It pains me deeply to witness the tremendous amount of effort, dedication, and resources poured into product development, only to see it go to waste due to this current approach. This approach not only hinders business growth but is often stuck in what I call the Product Momentum Gap. It's truly disheartening to observe businesses behaving as though they are an agency, customising features for individual clients, while still attempting to operate under the guise of a SaaS model, where scalability and recurring revenue are the key drivers. The discrepancy between the operational model and the actual business model can have devastating consequences on profit and loss.
The temptation to build a feature to close a big deal is huge, it's like me trying to lose weight but trapped in a cake shop! The allure of building a feature to secure a significant deal is indeed powerful, but we must remember that our customers are subscribing to a service, not purchasing individualised solutions. The very essence of the SaaS model lies in the ability to scale, selling the same product to numerous customers without incurring exorbitant time and material costs.
However, too often, the pursuit of closing a big deal blinds us to the financial realities. The cost of developing these deal-closing features can skyrocket into the hundreds of thousands, completely disregarding the profit margins generated from customer subscriptions. I've witnessed countless instances where the expenses incurred in building these features far outweigh the profits derived from the customers, resulting in a net loss for the company.
This issue becomes even more problematic when considering the opportunity cost. Instead of focusing on features with broad market appeal, we find ourselves catering to the whims of individual clients, often to our detriment. It's a bitter pill to swallow knowing that these deal-closing features, which consumed significant resources, are frequently left unused by the very customers they were intended to satisfy.
Build market-leading differentiation
So far it's all doom and gloom, but if product leaders can better influence and affect change inside their organisations it can be more sunshine and roses (well not quite that far!).
Let's face it: merely catering to customer requests won't set you apart in today's competitive market. Customers may articulate their needs, but their vision is inherently limited. That's where true innovation comes into play. By delving deeper, uncovering needs, and crafting solutions that surpass even the wildest dreams of your customers, you're not just differentiating your product — you're creating true market-leading differentiation.
To build products with high market value, it's imperative to think like missionaries rather than mercenaries (a phrase borrowed from Marty Cagen). Product professionals must embrace the role of product management, steering their teams towards greatness. It's not just about exerting influence; it's about fostering a collaborative spirit that fuels transformative growth. By championing a realistic change plan and leveraging collaborative influence strategically, product managers can carve out the space they need to thrive.
Yes, it may seem counterintuitive that product leaders must persuade their peers and superiors to allow the product function to help the business sustainably and repeatedly grow. Yet, it's a reality faced by many. I've witnessed firsthand how the power of collaborative influence can catalyse positive transformation within organisations. While it may not be a silver bullet, I have seen this habit contribute towards a positive transformation.
Real-world example
Ann (not her real name), a VP of Product in a SaaS martech firm, faced a significant challenge when her efforts to integrate product development teams were met with resistance from the CEO and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Despite her team's capabilities, they were relegated to simply delivering features, leading to dissatisfaction and potential staff turnover. Trust between product development and leadership was lacking, hindering progress and risking the company's success.
Previous attempts to move things forward had failed, there was clearly a trust issue between product development and the CEO and CRO. Ann decided to first focus on building trust with the CRO, when features were delivered and not used it was his teams that struggled to keep the client satisfied. He felt the pain more first-hand than the CEO.
She empathised with the CRO and listened using open-ended non-challenging questions to get deeper into the underlying problems. When Ann felt she fully understood the CROs pains in his own words she then reframed the product strategy to map to the challenges the CRO felt personally. This was not a change of strategy, instead, it was explaining it from a new perspective.
Ann brought the product managers together with the senior sales and customer success staff, to align user behaviours to the customer values within the boundaries of the product strategy. The teams felt this was pragmatic and understood where a difference could be made.
The CRO was not fully onboard, still keen to demand features ad-hoc. Ann changed from empathetic questioning to sharing key facts and learnings with the CRO, then in follow-up conversions asking challenging questions related to these facts. Repeating this process soon resulted in the CRO starting to suggest Ann’s team was not doing enough research and criticising their efforts. While this might have been a dent into Ann’s ego, it was exactly what Ann wanted to hear. She accepted this, after all, it was true and embraced conversations about the shortfall bringing the CEO into the debate.
It took only a few weeks before the expectation was the product managers should be doing discovery, although the CEO and CRO called it due diligence. Ann captured this, agreed on what good outcomes would look like and then set her product professionals off with time now dedicated to product discovery.
I was coaching Ann throughout. The journey was hard. It was difficult to accept criticism for not doing something that she had previously not been allowed to do. She focused her product managers on rapid learning, and quickly showed the evidence to all. She changed the roadmap priority based on the data and celebrated the learnings. It was not long before the CRO and CEO were celebrating her teams for avoiding huge waste, a little patience had resulted in Ann’s team being seen as the hero. She grabbed this new trust with both hands and quickly got to work with the CTO to transform the team topology to be value-stream focused and continue the journey towards being outcome-led.
Influencing with questions
This four-step persuasive approach is ideal to influence upwards.
Listen to the stakeholders’ pains.
Share knowledge related to your preferred solution.
Ask challenging questions highlighting the problem related to the shared knowledge.
Keep listening and repeat until a way forward is suggested close to your preference.
Recognise that some stakeholders require the illusion of ownership over the proposed solution. This form of influence strategically allows stakeholders to embrace ideas as their own, fostering alignment with your preferred approach. While stakeholders may not initially propose your exact solution, they often gravitate towards concepts closely resembling your vision. Embrace this opportunity for collaborative dialogue, steering discussions towards outcomes that mirror your objectives.
Our role as influencers is to empower stakeholders with the knowledge necessary to tackle challenges effectively. By sharing our insights, we guide stakeholders towards solutions that mirror our own. Though their experiences may lead to slightly different conclusions, it's imperative to remain receptive to their input. Through collaboration and receptivity, we can refine and enhance our shared vision, ultimately arriving at improved solutions.
Inflexibility stifles progress. Consider the case of Ann, whose adaptive approach to leadership yielded remarkable results. By initially framing product discovery as "investment due diligence," she gained the CEO's trust and gradually expanded the approach. Embracing flexibility and demonstrating value paved the way for transformative change. Effective leadership isn't about dictating; it's about guiding and inspiring others towards a common goal.
Helping align stakeholders and taking them on a journey is leadership. Just telling people what is right and wrong is not leadership. Leaders have to be followed!
Not everyone believes what you do
The outcome-led or empowered product approach is a way of working that many product management people buy into, but for a lot of people, it is a belief. Many have never worked in this way but believe it to be the best way forward. Others have worked in this way and believe it is the only way to operate. To put it another way, similarly to how many view agile, the outcome-led approach or empowered product approach is an ideology for many product professionals. When we have ideologies it can be very hard to empathise with those people who don’t have the same beliefs. It is very easy to see others as wrong. This mindset does not allow for a middle ground and can be interpreted as stubborn or even preaching.
In the example, Ann had to find a middle ground, doing so was hard, and it dented her ego. It was frustrating and emotional, but no one said leadership was easy. If all you had to do was lead people who agree with you I am not sure what real value you would bring.
It is important to recognise that those people you are trying to influence have their own ideology and may well feel as strongly about it as you do yours. If your way forward conflicts with their ideology then compromise and middle ground are going to be difficult for all parties involved.
Understand your sphere of trust
Stakeholder management is essential for leaders, just as it is for product managers. It involves nurturing relationships with various stakeholders, some of whom you may have stronger bonds with based on trust and mutual understanding. Your ability to influence these stakeholders varies depending on their level of interest in the topic at hand and their position of power within the organisation.
Many product leaders are likely familiar with the stakeholder map, which plots stakeholders based on their levels of interest and power. Those with both high interest and high power are the ones you should prioritise keeping informed and engaging with regularly, while those with low power and low interest may require less attention.
Using this grid to identify which stakeholders to invest time in is the first step toward driving change toward an outcome-focused approach. The second step involves considering each stakeholder's sphere of trust. This model evaluates the target stakeholders and who they trust or share power with openly. It then extends to who those trusted individuals themselves trust or share power with.
For instance, let's consider Ann, who was new to her role. Initially, she wasn't trusted by the CEO. However, the CRO, who had previously worked with the CEO, was part of the CEO's inner circle. Recognising this, Ann aligned her objectives with those of the CRO and established a solid working relationship with them.
In more extensive organisations with complex structures, you may find yourself only having a relationship with stakeholders in the third sphere—those whom the trusted individuals trust. Combining these stakeholder models enables you to identify key allies for driving improvement initiatives.
Remember, Ann didn't solely focus on the CRO; she also collaborated with senior sales and customer service staff, who were trusted by the CRO. This illustrates the importance of leveraging relationships across various spheres of influence to effectively enact change.
People like to solve problems
A major challenge when driving transformation in an organisation towards being outcome-led or empowered. Senior leaders are people, and people like to solve problems. We are generally “cognitive misers”, we try to avoid high cognitive demand. It costs the body glucose to think, which this scientific paper explains. We also have a high intolerance of uncertainty, put simply, uncertainty equals potential threat and our brains are hard-wired to want to resolve uncertainty to return a sense of safety. These physiological and biological factors encourage people to rush to an answer.
Product leaders expecting their senior stakeholders to never bring solutions are clearly asking them to behave unnaturally. Instead, product leaders must handle the solutions appropriately, and the power of questions is crucial. One approach is helping the stakeholder recognise potential risks in a solution and giving an answer to return to safety in the form of product discovery.
What makes it tricky?
Building trust with people is a gradual journey, one that requires patience and understanding. It's not something that happens overnight, and along the way, there are common mistakes that can hinder progress.
It's crucial to recognise the importance of including senior stakeholders in the process. They often possess valuable insights and perspectives that can contribute to finding solutions. However, it's equally important to balance their input with other considerations to avoid the pitfalls of the HiPPO effect.
While founders and CEOs may often appear stoic and strategic, it's essential to remember that they, too, are human beings with emotions. Many of their decisions stem from these emotions rather than purely logic. By empathising with their underlying feelings, we can better support them in navigating complex situations.
Your own emotions matter just as much. It's natural to feel frustration or anger at times, but cultivating empathy towards your stakeholders can help you manage these emotions effectively.
As a product leader, it's tempting to take charge and let your team shine. However, during challenging times with senior leaders, it can be valuable to take a step back and empower the stakeholders. This might involve presenting clear, factual information along with potential pathways forward, fostering collaboration and understanding.
How to make it easier?
I discussed storytelling in a previous edition of the Confident Product Leader, but it is a powerful tool that can make influencing transformation easier.
As with many things in leadership, you will need to repeat yourself again and again. Purposefully find multiple forums and formats to repeat your message.
I have already said this will not be an overnight success, it is a journey and throughout the journey celebrate the smallest of related successes. Pippa Topp calls these “pockets of brilliance” in her MindTheProduct talk.
Finally, I encourage you to collaborate and re-articulate your product strategy as user behaviours. This is what I call the Product Value Creation plan which features in my book The Product Momentum Gap.
Tips to getting started
This article was written assuming you are a product leader or product manager trying to influence your organisation to adopt an outcome-led or empowered product approach, or as Marty Cagan calls it the Product Operating Model.
To help you take action, I invite you to:
Complete the stakeholder map and the sphere of trust to identify stakeholders of focus.
List out how you can improve your empathy with the stakeholders of focus.
Further learning
I didn’t talk about MICE or RICE in the article but these models are worth understanding. They are not prioritisation frameworks, instead, they are influencing models used in sales, leadership and among others the intelligence communities such as the CIA or MI6 (according to ex-intelligence officers). Check out this YouTube video of the four core motivations explained by ex-CIAex CIA officer Andrew Bustamante.
For examples of working with very difficult stakeholders such as Apple’s founder Steve Jobs and recognising your own power of influence, I recommend Adam Grant’s book Think Again.
I am currently working on a course focused on helping product leaders improve stakeholder influence. If you want to join the waiting list, get an early bird discount and be the first to find out more, please complete this form.
If you want more help, you can find out about product leader coaching with me at my website www.righttoleft.co.uk.