Preventing Alignment Decay
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We had way too much to do.
A laundry list of enhancement needs, feature requests, defects to fix, and new ideas to explore.
Being the intrepid product manager that I was, I worked hard to identify the most impactful ones, socialize them among key stakeholders, and get alignment on the priorities.
I used shuttle diplomacy to make sure I involved the right set of stakeholders from across the organization. And, of course, Design and Engineering.
I got my proposed roadmap approved by the executive team.
Armed with this alignment, I scheduled sessions with the commercial team and the broader R&D team to review the new roadmap. I recorded the sessions, posted links to each on a corporate Notion page, and shared both via email and on our #productroadmap Slack channel recaps to each session with a link back to the Notion page.
Good job, Shardul, I was told. Everyone seemed to be on the same page. Everyone seemed aligned.
Feeling really good about myself, I set about working with the team to execute on our roadmap.
Until two weeks later, I heard this:
"I have no idea what's on the roadmap."
WTF? I thought. We had literally talked about this not 12 days ago!
My sin? I had allowed our alignment to decay.
If they haven't heard from you in a while, stakeholders will forget what they aligned on or agreed to.
I've talked about how it's harder for someone to argue against something they’ve helped create.
Hence, the advantage of using a collaborative and inclusive approach to getting stakeholders aligned on roadmap priorities.
Yet, as product managers, we often find these same stakeholders and collaborators forget the very thing we all just aligned on.
This manifests in different ways:
- They seemingly reverse on what they had previously agreed to.
- They have a new request that is now their most urgent priority.. and think it should be the company's most urgent priority.
- They're under pressure to provide answers to their stakeholders.
- They simply forget.
Why does this happen?
It's not because people are jerks. (At least, not 99% of the time.)
Quite simply, it happens for (1) business reasons, (2) human reasons.
- New customer opportunities or priorities come up.
- New business realities – new fires to put out, competitive actions, shift in strategy, Board or investor pressure, etc.
- People are busy. After nodding their heads, they quickly move back to their own priorities. Remember: They're not living in our product world. They have their own goals, agendas, and things they are accountable for.
- It's not their job to adhere to product development priorities.
That last one is particularly important for us to remember.
Whining and lecturing don't work.
Obviously, this can be super frustrating as a product manager.
When I first encountered this, I did the following:
- Whined to my boss.
- Stomped my feet around the house.
- Had my patient wife listen to my "These idiots!" rant.
- Lectured my stakeholders on our process.
Predictably, none of these worked.
Preventing Alignment Decay becomes a product management responsibility.
I first heard this term, Alignment Decay, from Bruce McCarthy.
Over time, alignment between product management and stakeholders can erode – and pretty quickly, it turns out.
The consequences of not re-visiting alignment can be catastrophic:
- Loss of trust in product plans.
- Loss of confidence in the product team.
- Frustration and demotivation across the board.
We can act like it's not our fault. But the hard reality is that no one is going to solve it other than us.
Fortunately, the solution is actually quite straightforward. So much so that I often cry into my chicken tikka masala that it took me so long to realize it. (And not from the spiciness.)
Do regular check-ins.
Once or twice within the planning cycle, we want to meet with our stakeholders to review learnings and align on any changes.
The level and frequency of check-ins will depend on the size of our organization. For example, in a startup it may involve just the CEO and key executives and leaders. In a larger organization, it may require a more structured cadence, like weekly with the team, biweekly or monthly with senior management, and monthly or quarterly with the execs.
In these reviews, we want to cover 4 things:
- The original plan.
- What has been learned – new opportunities, customer feedback, new requests or issues.
- What we're proposing to change.
- The impact of these changes. (Career defining pro tip: Use money talk.)
- Alignment on what changes we will or won't make.
Depending on the frequency of these check-ins and the number of stakeholders, shuttle diplomacy can be very helpful for #5.
We're effectively extending the collaborative process we used to create our roadmap into a continuous one to keep it updated.
Doing this will ensure that our stakeholders continue to feel heard and a part of the process, and increase the chances of continual alignment.
Now, does this approach guarantee that all stakeholders will remain aligned at all times?
Ha ha! No, of course not, you sweet product manager, you.
Remember the two reasons alignment decay happens: business reasons and human reasons.
Those still exist. So this approach is about risk management as much as it is about collaboration and alignment.
It's also a politically effective approach.
Because, let's face it, that's what stakeholder management is – being politically astute.
And, most importantly for us, with this approach we'll get marks for:
- Responsiveness.
- Inclusiveness.
- Being collaborative.
- Transparency.
- Teamwork.
- Leadership.
All while not losing our agency.
Give it a try. Let me know how it works for you.
That's all for this Saturday. Have a lovely weekend. See you next week.
