How to balance long term vs short term? Develop helicopter mindset

Balancing long-term goals with short-term tasks involves handling important and special customer requests while keeping a plan that benefits most users. This challenge is common in product management, whether for consumer products or business solutions. Let’s dive into practical strategies.

The Challenge

As product managers we spend a lot of time developing their roadmap by talking to customers, gathering feedback, analyzing data, and studying the market. This plan aims to give the most value to the customer base. However, key customer groups or stakeholders often ask for specific features that need a lot of resources. These requests can disrupt the planned roadmap and use up resources that could help more users.

Why This Happens

1. Importance of Relationships: Building strong ties with key customer groups is crucial. These ties often require addressing specific requests, even if they use resources meant for broader goals.

2. Skill of Influence: Handling these requests is part of the role. Product managers must influence both internal and external people to guide the organization and customers in a direction that fits the overall plan.

Strategies to Balance Requests and Vision

Customer Voice is Important and Understanding Their Problems is Critical

Making customers feel heard is key. Even if every request can’t be met, taking the time to listen and discuss their needs shows that their input matters. This involves:

- Talking Directly: Speak with customers to understand their concerns. This helps gather detailed insights that might not come through written feedback alone.

- Digging Into Issues: Look into their problems closely to see if there’s another way or a different feature that could help. This shows a commitment to finding solutions.

- Knowing Segment Dynamics: Identify which customer groups are making the request and address their specific needs. Understanding these dynamics can help manage expectations better.

Developing a solid process for capturing and analyzing customer feedback includes:

- Collecting Feedback from Various Channels: Gather feedback from emails, public forums, in-app buttons, and surveys to get a full view of customer sentiments.

- Automated Data Collection: Use tools to gather data into a central place, making it easy to access and analyze.

- Creating Regular Reports: Compile feedback into engaging stories and reports to share with the team, ensuring alignment and understanding of the customer’s voice.

Involving customers in this process and showing them that their feedback is valued and acted upon builds stronger relationships and garners support for the long-term vision.

Presenting Your Vision

Sharing a well-made roadmap helps everyone see the bigger picture of the customer’s needs and how the roadmap addresses these needs effectively. This includes:

- Sharing the Plan: Clearly explain what’s being worked on and how it addresses broader user problems. This helps everyone understand the direction and reasons behind choosing certain features.

- Highlighting Customer Insights: Use customer feedback to show why certain features are included in the roadmap. This helps everyone see how these choices are based on real customer needs.

- Creating Excitement: Get everyone excited by sharing upcoming features and improvements. A clear vision can turn everyone into supporters, creating a shared commitment to the roadmap’s success.

- Building Long-Term Trust: Make sure everyone feels confident that the product will keep improving and meeting customer needs. This reassures them that their investment in the product is sound.

- Aligning Goals: Show how the roadmap matches the overall business goals and customer satisfaction. This helps everyone see the connection between their work and the larger mission of delivering great value to users.

By presenting the roadmap this way, you help everyone see the full picture of customer voices and how the planned actions aim to address their needs and drive the product’s success.

Context is king

Understanding the broader context is key when deciding how to balance customer requests with the product vision. Consider:

- Customer Segment Relationship: How important is this group of customers to the business? Sometimes, meeting a specific request is worth it for the relationship. Also, ask if this segment of customers is important to the company's growth and success.

- Company Stage: Where is the company in its growth? New companies might focus on gaining recognition, while more established ones might aim for broader impacts.

- Data-Driven Choices: Use data to compare the impact of specific requests versus broader features. This helps in making informed choices that match long-term goals.

Balancing long-term goals with short-term tasks is a key skill for product managers. By making customers feel heard, sharing a clear vision, and understanding the broader context, specific requests can be managed without messing up the overall plan. The aim is to provide value to the most users while keeping strong ties with key customer groups.