What do you do if your influence as a Product Management executive is not impacting decision-making?

If your influence as a Product Management executive isn't affecting decision-making, focus on building trust. Communicate openly, listen to others, and show reliability in your work. Be transparent about your intentions and actions. By consistently delivering results and being dependable, you'll earn the trust of your team and stakeholders. With trust established, your insights and recommendations are more likely to be valued and considered in decision-making processes.

- Demonstrate consistency in actions and decisions to build trust over time. Deliver value in your work. - Be transparent about what you wanna do, your decisions, and the reasoning behind them to foster trust among stakeholders.

Build stronger relationships, showcase successful outcomes, and articulate the strategic value of product decisions. Leverage data and align your influence with organizational goals to demonstrate impact and gain decision-making traction

Building a product vision, making sure it aligns with company goals help. Start with company goals and translate it into product vision. Product vision could be defined by For (target customers) Who (have a problem), Our product provides (compelling reason to buy). Our product (has these key competitive differentiators). Once this is done at product leadership level. This could be trickled down to various teams/pods. Or the other way round. The teams/pods, could be putting their vision together, and then product leadership can oversee how the respective teams are creating the overall vision for the product in the company. Once this is built, you communicate across the company!

Consider bypassing traditional communication channels and directly engaging with key stakeholders or the wider team through informal settings or social media. This approach can humanize your position, making your ideas more accessible and relatable, potentially garnering support from unexpected quarters. While it might challenge hierarchical norms, it could foster a more open and collaborative culture, ultimately enhancing your influence in decision-making processes.

The world which we live in right now is all data-driven. As a Product Manager, having a strong understanding of data and metrics translates to informed decision making, validation of assumptions, user-centric approach, performance monitoring, iterative improvement, and competitive insights. Overall, leveraging data as a product manager is essential for driving product success, fostering innovation, and delivering value to users and stakeholders. By embracing a data-driven approach, product managers can optimize product development, enhance user experience, and achieve sustainable growth in today's competitive landscape.

Use data to support your arguments and decisions. Quantitative data backs up your influence on the leadership and will help you make decisions.

Regularly assess your own approach and effectiveness. Identify areas for improvement and be willing to adapt your strategies based on feedback and outcomes.

Understand the organizational dynamics and navigate the political landscape. Being politically savvy allows you to align your influence strategies with the organizational context.