There are situations when a product manager takes certain steps that are not so commonly expected from the owner of the product, like escalating issues to top executive. While many may consider this as weakness or inability to handle certain situation but at times in the interest of product it becomes important that the product manager escalates certain issues / situation to top executives. Two main reasons that I experienced that caused such a scenario are: “engineering fails to understand business priorities” and “business fails to understand engineering challenges”. And reasons for such a situation are;

1. Out of sync engineering
   
2. Pressure of numbers from business
   

Out of Sync engineering

Engineering has simply failed to appreciate the business needs. They are working at slower than the expected pace or in a different direction. Engineering must work at the right velocity – a combination of speed and direction; if not, they are sure to miss on certain critical milestones set by business. It only means that in such situations the organization is bound to miss on some of the opportunities and will have to take a hit on either top line or bottom line or both.

Along with speed it is also important that the Engineering works in the right direction. This means that there is no gap between what is expected and what is being developed. While a Product Manager is expected to take care of such deviations many a times the Product Manager becomes a helpless spectator of being overwritten by design limitations, technological challenges or simply by someone in higher up ranks in engineering who is not aligned with the product vision.

This is a situation that I call as ‘out-of-sync’ – the Engineering is out of sync. The least that is expected out of a Product Manager at this stage is that he merely acts like a spectator and let Engineering go out of sync with market/business expectations. It is very much the duty of a Product Manager to ensure that he escalates such ‘out-of-sync’ situations to top executives at the right time for them to intervene and ensure that engineering is back in sync with the business priorities.

Pressure of Numbers from business

Profit is purpose of business and it is this purpose that drives all activities within the organization. When numbers are not met (top line or bottom line or both) the pressure of missing targets is sure to percolate down to all departments and projects.

When winning new orders becomes tough, when supporting legacy product eats up to much of bottom line and with customer satisfaction levels takes a nose dive, it is natural that pressure on new product being developed will be high; this is for a simple reason that everyone in the organization believes that the new product will ease their life and this new product is the only savior.

The probability that this pressure will break the team (Engineering team) is very high. Pressure of numbers has potential to crack and break a well settled voyage. And unless the Product Manager jumps in and escalates such situations to top executives, chances of a complete burn-out is very high; only a soothing balm from top brass will help reduce the pressure on Engineering.

Concluding remarks

While Product Managers own  a product and they are the one who decides on priorities, it would be wrong on the part of the organization to leave everything up to a Product Manager and enjoy the show. For Product Managers it is important to understand that they are the one who must initiate these escalations in the interest of the product and strategy. To win you must have a committed and passionate team and what could be better than to have top management also in your side.

@mathurabhay