Matt LeMay: evaluation

Transcript context

…What advice do you have? What have you learned works well for pushing back, helping people see how they're not... What they want you to build is wrong. So this is where I have the benefit, I suppose, of being a conflict-averse, people pleaser. So I've been through this, and I think the thing I am proudest of saying in product management and practice is that if you're doing product management really well, you never have to say yes and you never have to say no. You're giving people options and you're helping them understand the trade-offs. So in keeping with this idea that there are things outside of your control, as a product manager, you're not always going to be the one who makes the decision. There are going to be other people who come to you and say, "Build this," or who say, "I don't see the value in that. Do this, do that. I want this, I want that." If those people are in a position of formal authority in the organization, I've certainly never had luck telling them no. Furthermore, I've found myself in situations where they just know things that I don't know. Where they're pursuing an acquisition, so there are certain things that we have to do or can't do. Where there's some serious financial challenge that they're working their way through right now, which is shifting around priorities, but they are not at liberty to discuss that with the broader organization. It is quite possible that the folks who are asking you to do things that don't make sense, have access to information that you don't. And that in trying to convince them otherwise, you are not only going to fail, but you are going to lose some of that trust and degrade that relationship that could in time be really important for you. So I think the challenge is to say, "All right, you want me to build this thing? Maybe. Let's look at the different things." If you're going through these steps, if you say, "I understand, here's what our team's goals are, here's the stuff we're prioritizing, here's the impact we think it could have." If you're coming to me with something which is going to have more impact, heck yeah, I would love to build that. That sounds amazing. But if it has an unclear impact or if it doesn't tie into this, then we might need to adjust the impact we're seeking to have. If this is suddenly really important, as with that story that was told in the book, right? Sometimes it's like, all right, we got to do this. Sure. That means that our impact projection is going to have to be adjusted this much. You're not saying no, you're not saying yes. You're helping someone who is in a position to make a decision, understand the trade-offs that go into that decision. And again, if you can do that, you're going to go home at the end of the day feeling better. You're going to feel less like you lost a battle or that you were overridden by an unjust tyrant, and it's going to be more like, "Okay, I made sure they had all the information I would want to have if I were making that decision. That decision is ultimately theirs to make, and I'm going to do the best I can." Tell me if you disagree. In my experience, you also want to recommend a path. Because a lot of people don't want PMs just, "Here's all the options. I have no opinion, no bias of any kind. You decide." I find that people want you to have a perspective.…

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