In many ways, my job--leading the product development/product management team--is like being the executive chef in a big kitchen--it's my responsibility not only to determine what we will release, but the best order and sequence of what we will do--and where the resources will be applied.
My top-line criteria are clear:
- Make the product support both the customer experience/value and the business needs
- Choose the projects that offer the biggest impact for the level of effort
- Balance short term initiatives with smaller, more focused pay-off, with longer, investment/development projects
But if I'm clear on all that, why do I spend some much of my time saying No? Often, I say No because
- The project isn't something we have the resources to do right now--and it's not worth prioritizing over something else
- It's a nice to have, not a must have
- The level of effort and the return don't line up enough
- It's distracting from our core business objectives--for the year or the quarter
- It's overbuilding--we think it's neat, but customers won't notice
- It's too bleeding edge (this is a subset of overbuilding)--we love the idea but the novelty outweighs the business impact
And what kind of projects, you ask, get the Nos? (Well, this is the place where it hurts.)
- Pet projects that are very Web 2.0 but either won't drive the business
- Projects we can wait a quarter or more to execute
- Copy'ems--we think we need something cause a competitor has it (in that road lies madness--and waste)
- Wrong scale--too big or too small for the moment (we try to right size these, then do them)
As someone who spent a lot of her career being the cutting-edge, push the mass market troublemaker, having a job being the one who says No, is an interesting experience--but it is also incredibly cool.
Working with a team of smart people who are passionate about the customer experience, the product AND the business objectives is tremendously fun--and sometimes, completely harrowing.
I've learned that No can cover a myriad of things:
- We're not going to do this right now.
- We won't do this ever, not on my watch.
- This isn't ready to be executed.
- You need to think this through more.
- What are you, nuts?
- Oh geeze, I wish we could do this..but we're not going to, not now.
Yep, I say No a lot more than I used to--but it makes it feel so good when I get to say yes.
Written in honor of my one year anniversary at Yahoo! Personals.
http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2007/01/adventures...