Stakeholders with control issues.

Let’s be honest: They can be so infuriating.

They think they own the product.

They think they’re the customer.

They think their priorities matter more than everyone else’s.

So, they believe the product should do whatever they want it to do.

This isn’t unique to “internal products,” where the users are internal within the company. I’ve also seen it happen with external, true customer-facing products.

Let me give you a real example.

Years ago, I joined a company where Product Management was new. They hired a Director (with no previous PM experience, BTW) to lead the team.

The PM Director reported to the VP of Marketing, who, in turn, reported to the SVP of Client Services and Business Development, who was the GM of the core business. The SVP reported to the CEO.

So, Product Management was buried in the bowels of the org.

The org chart was primarily organized along its client accounts, which were major retailers. Each account was led by a Business Director, who reported directly to the SVP. Only admin functions, like legal, HR, and finance, as well as call center operations and IT, were centralized.

So, there was a business director for the OfficeMax account, one for B&H Photo, one for JC Penney, one for Best Buy, one for Amazon, one for Walmart, etc.

Most importantly, each business director had their own P&L, and their bonus was tied to it. As a result, from a budget perspective, each LOB paid proportionally into the product development budget.

Because the larger LOBs contributed more money to the product development budget, they naturally felt entitled to more control over what Product Management worked on.

That meant that the Walmart business director wanted his stuff to be prioritized at the top, always, and didn’t care whether it benefited any of the other LOBs.

In fact, the bigger LOBs even demanded they have their own dedicated product manager, focused exclusively on their client.

There was precedent for this.

As you can probably imagine, it was exhausting.

Every roadmap discussion became a negotiation.

Every priority became a political battle.

We struggled to gain any real traction.

Our Product Director (my boss) was eventually let go.

He was replaced with a PM leader who, though still relatively weak in product management skills, had the key missing ingredient:

Political astuteness.

He built strong relationships with each Business Director, especially the bigger LOBs. He not only understood how each LOB was run, but also got to know each BD's personality and what drove them professionally and personally.

His genius move was to build a strong relationship with the VP of Client Implementation.

Through a long track record of delivery, she had a well-respected voice among the LOB leaders and the C-suite.

From her, he learned how she thought about resourcing the LOBs with her CIMs, and how she handled each BD.

Over time, she became one of the strongest supporters and advocates for our team.

One of the best things our PM leader did — and had me do — was form a direct relationship with the SVP. As we earned the SVP’s respect, that SVP began to give us more support and air cover if, say, the Walmart Business Director got a bit too territorial.

As a result, over the course of the next year, funding projects became easier, our product roadmap was streamlined, and we launched more successful products.

Fighting for control is difficult. If you don’t directly control P&L, budget, key resources, or a mission critical operation, it’s a losing battle. And most product teams don’t control any of those.

I learned that success in product management was less about a particular development methodology, a PM framework, or investing in nebulous concepts like “product thinking,” “product sense,” or “having a product mindset” — the things Silicon Valley kept lecturing me to do.

I learned that success in product management had far less to do with development methodologies, PM frameworks, or Silicon Valley buzzwords like “product thinking,” “product sense,” and “product mindset.”

Those things were useless for the core problem we needed to solve.

I was lucky to have the right mentor at the right time. I learned a lot from my manager at that company. He taught me that success in product management boiled down to 2 key skills:

He taught me how to use business knowledge and political skills to position our product plans and roadmaps to stakeholders in ways that brought them on board.

To be successful in that organization, I had to learn skills I hadn’t been taught anywhere else.

Here are the lessons I learned:

It’s usually one of these:

Sometimes all of these.

In my story, the Business Directors’ goals were to (1) retain and grow the client relationship, and (2) hit their annual P&L growth number.

Having “product thinking,” agile vs. waterfall, fancy prioritization templates, systems thinking, design thinking — none of that stuff mattered to them.

Understand their personalities. Learn what motivates them. Figure out how they prefer to communicate.

You don't need to become best friends.

But treating stakeholders like human beings instead of organizational obstacles goes a long way.

It was on me to understand each BD’s business and communicate my product plans in a way that showed how they would benefit the BD’s business and client.

Doing it this way gave them a certain sense of control (they felt involved) without us coming across as threatening.

Deliver results that matter to the business. Nothing breeds credibility like a track record of delivery.

At this company, it wasn’t just about delivering on time and on budget. It was about demonstrating the financial or economic impact to the Business Director’s P&L and client relationship.

So whatever plans you communicate, make sure you deliver on them!

Gaining credibility and trust is harder in the beginning. As you develop a track record of delivery, you’ll be granted more forgiveness over time. (Never take this for granted, though.)

If you’re dealing with a stakeholder who seems obsessed with control, don’t start by fighting to take control back.

Start by understanding what’s driving their behavior.

This week, pick one stakeholder and ask yourself:

Then review your next roadmap presentation, product proposal, or project update.

That small shift can completely change the conversation.

Stakeholders rarely fight for control simply because they’re difficult. More often, they’re trying to protect something they care about.

The faster you understand what that is, the easier it becomes to earn trust, gain influence, and move the product forward.

That’s all for this week.

Have a joyful week, and, if you can, make it joyful for someone else too.

cheers,
shardul

Shardul Mehta
I ❤️ product managers.

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