Product Management & Currencies of Influence

Most Product Management jobs are incredibly hard because your outputs & outcomes are primarily accomplished through influence and guidance rather than through outright authority. In other words, a PM generally cannot make a call on something and deploy that decision through the organization. That’s even more pronounced for IC PMs who are earlier in their careers.

Instead, there’s a great deal of campaigning, and dare I say selling, to get dependencies aligned on a particular decision. There are different currencies that a Product Manager can deploy in order to influence cross-functional partners, the broader team, and even the executive staff on a path forward. 

And let me be clear, people are often flippant when they say things like “oh yeah you just need to influence your key counterparts” or whomever. That fundamentally discounts how extremely difficult it is to drive real influence. It’s actually very hard. Don’t underestimate the process. 

Sometimes, as a PM, you will borrow authority from other sources to get your work done:

• Data – “the data is clear, we have to make this decision”. This is the most powerful form of currency, because it’s so hard to dispute. It also makes it the easiest to invoke if the data is indeed validating your position. When the data tells a clear story on the path forward, then the onus is on differing viewpoints to prove out why an alternative proposal is better. 

• User – ”this is the right thing to do for the user, we should support the user above everything”. Wield this as both a sword and shield. This is a first principles currency, and is very powerful - perhaps not as much as when the data speaks loudly, but nevertheless if the path you’re pursuing drives value to users it’s a far less difficult decision. 

• Business – ”this is the outcome the business needs, so we must achieve it.”  Pointing toward a bigger outcome for the enterprise, and highlighting why this step is so crucial in the path to get to said outcome can be effective. Describe in articulate detail, with a clear chain of logic, how this step achieves something critical for the business, framed with a bigger goal in mind. That story when framed properly can be powerful in motivating a group of stakeholders. 

• Team – “the team knows what they’re doing, and this is what they want to do”. Empowering the team to pursue a path is a great currency to wield. A note of caution here though: you need to be aware of where the team is in its lifecycle. If the team is new, it’s going to be tougher because it’s not a proven commodity yet. The best time to spend this currency is after the team has a proven track record & has established trust, particularly with the senior leadership team. 

• Expertise – “I have been working in this domain for a long time, and I know the answer to this tough question.” or “I can see around this corner, let me show it to you and let’s make this decision together.” You have to be cautious in using this, and how you frame your narrative here. If not invoked properly, it can come across as condescending. Couched well, particularly if you have the track record and domain knowledge under your belt, it can go down with the team far easier.

• Fiat – “This is what we have to do. I’m putting my foot down.” I believe as a PM, fiat authority should be exercised as a last resort, though it is within your official purview to make final decisions for key product decisions. I personally almost rarely touch this fiat currency - it can cost meaningful social capital with the team, and should really only be invoked when something is truly at loggerheads & needs to be unblocked for the sake of the user or the business. 

Those have been the primary currencies I’ve found to be most effective when needing to drive a team toward an outcome. I’m sure there are other interesting forms of influence for Product Managers to deploy effectively. Would love to hear from people in the comments on any other approaches to influence stakeholders that I might have missed!