CEOs: Quick test for fact-based decisionmaking

One of the first product management trainings that I personally found impactful was pragmatic marketing. The tidbit I've most often repeated from that training is "Product Managers: Your opinion, while interesting, is irrelevant" (I've tried my best to remind myself of this in critical moments too!).

This is meant to ground product managers (regardless of level) and stakeholders in fact-based decision-making. In a culture where this is expected and even demanded, there are a lot of questions continuously asked like "How do we know that?" "Which customers or prospects did we talk to about this?" "What key customer or internal metrics will be improved by this?" This data shouldn't be vague... we're talking named customers/prospects with named individuals within those organizations who said what exactly.

Cultures that don't expect or demand this are guided by who shouts the loudest (might even be a single customer) or who has the most sway in the organization (could be Founder/C-Suite who is championing something with thin, if any, data). A lot of smart, well-intentioned people (including Product Managers!) across all company functions have strong, defensible opinions that if we just built X, Y, or Z then the company would be successful. However, I don't know of a single Product Management training that says opinions make good products - they all say that well-researched facts make good products.

So here's a quick way for a CEO or senior leader who is above the product function to test for fact-based decisionmaking. Ask for separate 60 minute meetings with the Product Managers of each of your products. Tell them that they don't need to prepare anything just bring a list of the features developed in the last year and those which are now in development or being prepped for development (if you do have multiple products each with their own product manager, schedule the meetings in rapid succession).

Any Product Manager worth their salt will be concerned with a meeting request like this. If you don't already have a trust based relationship with them, this is a perfect time to start building one! They might ask for clarification on the meeting's purpose and just tell them you'll discuss in the meeting itself.

In the meeting itself, tell them you're testing for fact-based decisionmaking. It's not a gotcha for them personally it's more a test of the overall product investment culture that exists in the company. You'll of course know something about many/all of the enhancements in the list but play the role that you don't know much and walk through the items one by one (or pick randomly as time allows) and ask the Product Manager to share the facts they have about that enhancement. Who will it benefit and how do we know that? How will that drive improved customer and/or company results? And most importantly, were their answers known when the item was approved or have they learned them since?

If you're one of the very few, you'll walk away from this meeting impressed by how much rigor is being used to approve your development spend. If you are in the majority, you'll be alarmed that way too much opinion is being used to drive your precious development spend, time and opportunity cost.