Product Managers guide to Handling Change
Have you ever had senior management divert you from an in-progress project to a complete new project nowhere on the roadmap? Have you had to deal with a sudden interrupt in plans that derail your entire product roadmap?
‘Change is inevitable’ they say. At the same time, they hand over a ‘locked’ roadmap to you deliver, while simultaneously adding features & items not on the delivery roadmap. How do you handle that?
Everybody pivots. Not everyone pivots the same way. No matter the reason, we’re still in the middle of business & product — between expectations & delivery — between money makes & money spenders. And while some ridiculous changes throw us off our stride, we Product Managers have to put on a straight face and act like we planned it all along. As a senior product manager once said:
Product managers are those who have a plan for everything.
Keeping that in mind, here is a 4 step plan for handling undocumented or unexpected changes in the roadmap:
Step 1 : Accept or Argue
Majority of the times, if it is a diktat from the senior management, you’ve no choice but to comply. Repeated occurrences of such diktat are harmful for the team's morale, and as a PM you’re sort-of in-charge of maintaining your team's morale — the more motivated your team is, the less influence you use to get things done.
Accepting the change is hard — especially when the only thing you’re given is an end-objective. But, we must be better than those who sit and bicker. Empathy is our greatest tool. Use it to understand what circumstances led to this change, and the reasons behind it. A few common reasons I’ve found in corporate:
- Senior mgmt is unaware of the current project & its impact and status
Without knowing the impact or status of the project in-progress, Senior Mgmt might have decided to add a new feature or change the direction. This is usually due to bad communication. Your representatives (Product Head or Technology Head) may not be conveying the on-ground-situation. - Senior mgmt is panicking about the declining sales
Panic makes management take drastic decisions. Revenue panic is the #1 cause of change in most startups. It is also the easiest to explain. - Senior mgmt is reacting to a competition change
This is a common behaviour — competitor A has done this, so we should do this too. A lack of product framework could causes these changes to flow down to execution level, without due diligence. - HiPPO — Highest Paid Person's Opinion
If you have a HiPPO in your organization, well — you should be used to this by now. HiPPOs don’t see reason — they see shiny things and they want it. No matter the cost.
In mature organizations, due diligence is usually done to ensure maximum business & user satisfaction — it is a collaborative decision and you are, most of the times, part of the decision making.
If you think the change requested is bad, think of logically placing your concerns to your seniors. Majority of the times, there may be a couple of levels above you to the decision making team — bypass them. It helps to show actual numbers to convince the business.
Step 2 : Rationalize
Once you’ve made your peace with the change, begin to rationalize the change. Finds pros & cons for building the change and try to focus on the pros. Remember, you are the representative of the business to the downstream teams — you’ve to make sure you are on-board with the change, as much as you can. Be honest, but at the same time, do not let the team morale go down.
A few ways you can rationalize:
- Cost benefit analysis
Suppose the project (A) you’re working on returns an incremental revenue of $2000 per week. The launch of the project is in 3 weeks. The change (B) that is requested will earn the business an incremental $1000 per week, taking a week to deliver. You can then say, that by not doing this feature, business stands to lose $3000 compared to $2000 lost due to a weeks delay in launching A (excluding post-launch costs of time & effort of project B). - Strategic direction
A strategic direction requiring an immediate pivot is the best way to rationalize. People want to know that their efforts count to something — a new strategic direction will help them rally to the cause. Ensure that the senior management and you are aligned on this strategic direction. - Reactive Tactical Change
If the change is a one time change, you can attribute it to a reactive tactical change to drive some business benefit. Sure, it might not hold a lot of water, but it does give you something to stand on.
At the end of the this, you should have a clear WIFM (what’s in it for me) for all the team members.
Step 3: Communicate
As I said earlier, you are the representative of the business stakeholder for the team. It is imperative that you get the buy-in from every single person on your team. Wherever possible, communicate in the following manner:
- Get a buy-in from the team leads
Get hold of the team leads and convey the change in direction — make it a discussion and not an order. Understand the challenges and escalate where required. Getting the buy-in from the team leads is crucial to your success. - Hold a team town-hall
Once you have the team leads on board, address the team with the team leads by your side. Convey the tactical, strategic and commercial advantage (if any) and keep the floor open for discussion. Let people voice out their concerns, the issues — you want to hear their problems with the change, their frustrations — and direct them in the right manner. The town-hall is over only when there is no confusion or dissent within the team and everyone is on-board.
I cannot stress enough on the importance of communication when it comes to handling changes in direction. And I believe mastering communication is the key to delivering successful products.
Step 4: Planning
Finally, plan out the efforts and impacts for the change. If the team is in a middle of a sprint, discuss the impacts of modifying the sprint goals to accommodate the change. Remember, we’re here to serve the business goals — process should not stand in the way of delivery.
The plan, when ready, should be presented to the stakeholders with all risks and challenges highlighted.
Step 5: Closing the loop
After the delivery, you’ve to recognize and reward your team. Remember they’ve gone through a sudden change. They’ve experienced trauma. And some might still have post-trauma stress. It is important you recognize this feeling and restore faith in the business stakeholders. Do not say that this will never happen again, instead say, if it does happen again, we’ll be ready for it. Reward high-praise to the most dissenting members of your team. Recognize the team spirit. These small things go a long way to building up the team — and eventually delivering great products.
A product is the reflection of the team that built it. If your team is motivated, your product is great.
It’s a cliche to say that change is inevitable. Unfortunately, that is the reality. Not matter how many frameworks, steering groups and processes you may add, there will be change. Make peace with it — strive to put your best foot forward at all times. Manage your own expectations before you manage others.
Change management in itself, is a vast topic — touching every strata of an organization. If you’d like to learn more about how change is handled in big orgs, read the below:
I’m interested to know how your team handles change. Do you do any of the following? Do you have issues with HiPPO? How do you handle it? Do let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for reading. If you like posts on Product management, checkout my two top performing posts: