You’re presenting a well-crafted product roadmap to a room of stakeholders and crew members when a senior chief begins to take over the assembly. This particular person is asserting their very own judgments, suggesting alterations, and customarily shifting focus away out of your plan. Whereas these actions might come from a spot of excellent intentions and former expertise, the impact might be demoralizing. If not dealt with appropriately, this situation also can have detrimental penalties on the product roadmap.
Should you’ve been a product supervisor for any size of time, you’ve doubtless discovered your self on this state of affairs, face-to-face with the HiPPO: the “highest-paid particular person’s opinion.” The opinions of a high-ranking or influential particular person within the group—who is usually the particular person in a gathering with the best wage—are likely to take priority over the insights of different crew members. With such authority, the HiPPO can have a major impression on the path of the product roadmap; thus, going up in opposition to, and even disagreeing with, the HiPPO might be extraordinarily intimidating.
I’ve been constructing merchandise for greater than a decade and I nonetheless repeatedly encounter the HiPPO. Over that point, nonetheless, I’ve developed methods to enact earlier than any product roadmap presentation to make sure stakeholder satisfaction and the very best roadmap attainable.
Why HiPPOs Are Harmful
In a product improvement context, the HiPPO’s impression might be harmful after they impose modifications primarily based on private expertise, instinct, or with out full data of the product or the vary of things that might have an effect on its success. Moreover, these modifications might not be consistent with buyer wants or market developments, leading to merchandise which are outdated, irrelevant, or fail to satisfy buyer expectations.
One other drawback arises when the HiPPO is danger averse, preferring the relative security of ways they’ve seen work effectively previously. This will result in an absence of innovation or a stagnant product roadmap. It could actually additionally result in losing time and assets on tasks that find yourself failing, being axed, or getting redirected down the road.
Typically, government enter may end up in roadmaps which have much less room for creativity and experimentation. Agile product roadmaps ought to talk outcomes quite than the outputs that Waterfall roadmaps sometimes do, however the 2023 State of Product Administration Report discovered that 70% of roadmaps most affected by requests from government management give attention to speaking outputs over outcomes.
Product roadmaps frequently influenced by the HiPPO can stifle creativity and injury the morale of the product crew. That is probably essentially the most detrimental impression of all, as a high-functioning crew is important to success.
Methods to Handle the HiPPO
Whereas HiPPOs pose many challenges, there are steps you may take to keep up management of your product and get buy-in from management.
Develop a Excessive-quality, Proof-based Roadmap
Step one is to make sure you have a product roadmap that works. It is a vital basis for countering any opposing views, as you may have full confidence that your roadmap is the correct method to go.
A robust product roadmap ought to embody a transparent imaginative and prescient and goals, in addition to a timeline for attaining them, with key milestones plotted. Establish the stakeholders concerned at every stage of the method. Select how you’ll measure success. Resolve which metrics to trace (e.g., buyer satisfaction, engagement, income). Use this knowledge to validate the standard of your future roadmaps.
For good product roadmap execution, determine how you’ll observe progress, evaluation and replace the roadmap, and take a look at and validate concepts. Quantitative knowledge from surveys, mixed with qualitative sentiment assortment from interviews and different interactions, affords compelling insights which are arduous to refute. Knowledge from different sources, similar to market analysis and competitor evaluation, must be utilized too. You need to have the ability to reply to buyer suggestions and adapt to altering wants; you are able to do this by incorporating a suggestions loop into the roadmap.
Set up a Choice-making Course of
With a view to preserve management of your product roadmap, create a strong course of for decision-making. Should you don’t have one already, develop a framework for gathering buyer knowledge and evaluating this info. This course of and its outcomes must be clearly documented and communicated to all stakeholders, together with the senior determine. Refer again to this evaluation to counter any opinions that don’t align along with your evidence-based roadmap.
Put collectively a crew with representatives from all related departments, together with product administration, engineering, advertising, and buyer assist. This crew could have the authority to make collaborative selections primarily based on each knowledge and subject material experience at sure factors within the roadmap (though you need to take steps to make sure that having this crew in place doesn’t decelerate your improvement course of). Ought to the HiPPO intervene, this constant analysis will make sure the product stays on observe.
Talk Recurrently With Stakeholders
Each stakeholder—together with the senior determine—is vital in making a profitable product, however it’s essential to make sure that there’s a clear understanding of the product roadmap and every particular person’s function in it throughout all departments.
Set up one system for maintaining stakeholders knowledgeable of modifications to the roadmap, and one other system for gathering, evaluating, responding to, and incorporating their suggestions. When everybody feels heard, you’ll encounter fewer points alongside the journey.
Foster Belief within the Product Workforce
Belief will probably be an important part in constructing constructive long-term relationships between the senior determine and the product crew. Strengthen belief by celebrating evidence-based selections from crew members that produce profitable outcomes. A technique that has labored effectively in my expertise is a month-to-month or quarterly award given to a person or group that tackled an issue having a detrimental impression on the product. This serves to exhibit the worth and experience of the crew, which can afford better autonomy from senior figures sooner or later. It additionally emphasizes the significance of data-driven decision-making.
Set Clear Expectations
Lastly, and maybe most significantly, previous to any roadmap discussions, develop a system in partnership with the senior determine and your product crew to handle their involvement in decision-making. It is best to enable all events to really feel heard whereas setting clear expectations for his or her roles and duties. Everybody—together with senior figures—must be held accountable for his or her selections and enter and be anticipated to supply proof to assist them. Remember to doc these processes formally and clearly for all crew members. (This course of might even deter the senior determine from providing unfounded opinions.)
Meet with the senior determine in a one-on-one setting a day or two earlier than any giant shows, giving them a discussion board by which to specific their considerations and you a chance to handle these previous to the assembly. An intimate surroundings makes it simpler to have tougher discussions with out the added stress of an viewers.
Product Roadmaps Are Pushed by Knowledge, Not Expertise
The success of a product roadmap depends on being pushed by knowledge quite than private expertise or instinct. The HiPPO can, due to this fact, have a major impression if their enter isn’t dealt with effectively. Making use of the easy however efficient methods I’ve laid out right here can mitigate and forestall injury to the roadmap, product, and crew. Having clear roles and limits in place, constructing belief, and making evidence-based selections are vital.
Strong, constant processes will enable you and your crew confidently design and execute product roadmaps which are consistent with buyer wants and market developments—and that may result in worthwhile merchandise. Suggestions from senior figures can undoubtedly be helpful, however on the subject of the product and its roadmap, you and your crew ought to have the insights that matter most.
