Hey Corinn here, creator of Speckled, the tool that helps PMs build the
right thing at the right time.
Today we're going to be talking about saying no.
Specifically how you can say no to customers and stakeholders with
class and style so that you can maintain control of your roadmap
without burning any of your bridges.
I know what you're probably thinking.
I hate saying no, me too.
But with practice, you'll get better at it.
And with experience, you're gonna realize that saying no is an essential
part of being a successful PM.
But why are we so afraid of saying no in the workplace?
Well, first it's uncomfortable.
It is pretty much the definition of conflict.
So most people avoid conflict.
Therefore we avoid saying no, and we instead kind of say "yeah"
to things, which is no good.
The second thing is that you're afraid of burning bridges.
You need to maintain a good working relationship with people, and you think
that saying no is going to make them not like you, but we don't think that's true.
So we actually think you should say no more often, and here's why.
First, so people will respect your role as a PM.
Your job is to protect the roadmap.
You need to deliver what's on there on time and by letting people, you
know, add things that you kind of say yes to but don't really quite
agree with it's actually kind of sabotaging your own success as a PM.
So saying no helps you maintain control of the roadmap and do your job better.
Another thing is that you're going to enjoy less stress.
Yes.
And maybe uncomfortable at first to say no to people, but in the long
term you're going to, you know, feel a lot better that you can
actually focus on what's important.
And you won't have to do that awkward like, Oh my gosh, I'm going to avoid
Tim in sales because he keeps asking me to do things and I know we shouldn't
do them, but I don't want to say no.
That's no good either.
So by saying no, you just kind of get that over with.
Alright, so covered why you should say no more often.
So now let's talk about the three things you need to do to
say no with style and class.
So number one thing, empathize and gather your thoughts.
You know, I know a lot of the times something comes in you and you're like,
what the heck was this person thinking?
But you got to realize that they're coming from somewhere.
Like you got to get into their mindset and figure out why they asked for something.
And that helps you become a better PM.
You need to understand why people are asking for things.
Get inside of their head.
And another thing you should do is just assume the best intentions.
Like this person probably wasn't requesting this to be a jerk.
They probably had a very valid reason.
So once you've kind of empathized with what they're asking for, it's
time to kind of come up with a reason for why you're saying no.
Then you know.
We don't feel like doing this isn't really a great reason.
Some, some good ones might be, we don't have enough resources
to accomplish this right now.
It doesn't align with the vision, or we have other higher or higher
priority things to take care of.
So step one, empathize and gather your thoughts.
So step number two, this is say no without saying no if you can.
A lot of times people will come to you with a request and there's often
a very good work around that you can help them implement that doesn't
require your engineering team's time.
Maybe there's a Zapier, a flow that you can set up.
Maybe there's a script, maybe it's a SQL query.
Try to find some other way to solve their problem.
If you can.
Another thing is let the know if there are other similar things on
the roadmap that may also match their goals for this specific request.
And another thing you can do is you can ask them to gather more evidence
for you and help them build a stronger use case that you'll reconsider in
the future if it is a strong use case.
So step two, say no without saying no if you can.
And step number three is to let them know that you appreciate their requests.
You know, not everything that's going to come in is a good idea, but some
things will be good ideas and you don't want to discourage people from
coming to you and presenting new possible features or opportunities.
You want to encourage them to do that.
So if they come to you with something, even if you think it's a little
bit silly, make sure you let them know that you appreciate that.
No, it's not a negative thing.
You were hired to guide the product vision, and if you say
yes, everything, you won't be able to do your job successfully.
So saying no is just a part of the process and you're something that as a PM
you're going to have to learn to embrace.
So next time you're presented with something that doesn't align with your
product vision, try the steps we covered.
It may be uncomfortable, but your roadmap and your team will thank you for it.
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Drop your email there and every Sunday we send out the top three product stories
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In the meantime, happy naysaying.