The Art of Saying No: How I Learned to Prioritize as a PM š āāļø
As product managers, we're constantly bombarded with requests, ideas, and demands from all directions. It can be tempting to say yes to everything, but the truth is, effective prioritization is key to product success. Today, I want to share my own journey of learning to say no and focus on what truly matters.
šŖ¤ The People-Pleaser Trap
While I was building products at Okta, I faced multiple situations where I should have said no, but didn't.
There was one CSM (Customer Service Manager) who pinged me multiple times to build a feature for one of their customers. The feature was low to medium effort, and would help make sure that this customer didn't churn. So I built it. But the customer churned anyway, and we ended up being 2 weeks late to ship another important feature.
Eventually, I learned that the best way to say no is to quantify the other priorities that I'm working on and which of those will get impacted if I take in the new request.