Hey All - I've been a PM and a founder. I've seen products and programs that worked and products and programs that didn't. I've seen great ideas wither on the vine. These failures had similar shapes every time. The hard questions got asked too late, or not at all.
For the last few weeks, I've been interviewing PMs about how their team decides what's worth building. Not the documented process. The real one.
A pattern is forming and I want to pressure test it with more people.
The pattern: most teams have a documented prioritization process (RICE, ICE, weighted scoring, Aha!, Productboard) and a real prioritization process (HiPPO, biggest customer, last thing the CEO mentioned in the all-hands). The documented process exists to make the real process look defensible after the fact.
Other ideas die the opposite way. They get strangled in process before they have a chance to prove themselves.
The PMs who told me this were not cynical. They were tired. They've shipped things they didn't believe in and watched the data confirm it later.
I'm looking for 5 to 10 more PMs to talk to over the next two weeks. Specifically, PMs who have:
- Killed an idea leadership wanted to ship
- Watched a feature get built that they predicted would fail (and were right)
- Tried to introduce a real prioritization framework and watched it get ignored
- Fought to get a good idea approved and watched it get watered down or shelved
My ask: 20 minute google meet. No pitch, no product. I'll take notes during the call to capture insights, but I'm not looking for proprietary information, internal data, or anything you can't share publicly. I'm interested in your process and your experience, not your roadmap.
DM me and I'll send a calendar link. Happy to share back what I'm hearing across all the conversations once I've done enough to see patterns.
Thanks!
BD