The Biz of Coding

Practical Product Management - Giving the Bad News

by Ujwal Tickoo on June 9th, 2006

One of the normal things I face in my life as a Software Product Manager is stakeholder conflict, shipping delay or other types of bad news.

The role of a Product Manager is strange. Typically Product Managers are individual contributors. They dont directly manage/control the Engineers or Quality teams that are involved in software development. But any delays due to Engineering problems or Quality problems cause shipping or other milestone delays. Who has to tell all this change of schedule to Top Management, Sales, Marketing, and PR? The Product Manager.

Its not a good feeling to face upset sales people hearing about delays in product shipping. It is not a good feeling telling Senior Management that there is a major stakeholder conflict that could derail the ongoing product strategy review. Escalating conflicts makes you feel like you are creating all the bad vibes! It is hard. It sucks. But thats the role of a Product Manager.

A good Product Manager, is able to present an objective evaluation of a bad situation — allowing Top Management to step in as required. To not lose the trust of sales and marketing teams a Product Manager has to regularly communicate bad news and provide rationale.

Over time, when people know that they can hear the bad news and the good news both from you — you gain credibility. You dont hide the bad news — just to pop up at the 11th hour saying the product won’t ship. You tell at the 8th hour that the product will take 2 extra hours to ship. That is a more acceptable time line to make changes in sales & marketing programs.

Other links of interest on Product Management: Software Product Management Qualities of a Product Manager Do Product Managers Require Domain Experience

POSTED IN: Product Management