Managing Stakeholder Influence in Product Decisions

As a Product Owner, it’s crucial to balance stakeholder influence with data-driven decisions to ensure the product’s success.

Exam Question

You are a Product Owner for a product with a rapidly declining customer base. One very influential stakeholder emphasizes the need to add more features to the product – to focus on capturing new customers.
Despite initial data that indicates the decline is due to a shrinking market opportunity, rather than a lack of new features, an influential stakeholder insists on adding more features to attract new customers. The influential stakeholder also says that if you do not add new features you risk losing your most profitable customer.
Which two of the following actions might you take?
(choose the best two answers)
A. Acknowledge the views of the influential stakeholder but decline to add more features to the the product.
B. Collaborate with other stakeholders and use a voting system to decide which options should be considered.
C. Agree with the stakeholder and add features to the Product Backlog as it might increase your customer base.
D. Collaborate with the stakeholder to run a small experiment to validate their opinion.

Correct Answers

A. Acknowledge the views of the influential stakeholder but decline to add more features to the product.
D. Collaborate with the stakeholder to run a small experiment to validate their opinion.

Explanation

Correct Answers

A. Acknowledge the views of the influential stakeholder but decline to add more features to the product:
As a Product Owner, it is important to consider stakeholder input but also to rely on data-driven insights. If the data indicates that the issue is due to a shrinking market opportunity rather than a lack of features, it may not be prudent to invest in additional features that may not address the root cause of the decline.

D. Collaborate with the stakeholder to run a small experiment to validate their opinion:
Running a small experiment can help validate the stakeholder’s opinion with minimal risk. This approach allows for data to guide the decision-making process and can provide evidence to either support or refute the stakeholder’s claim.

Incorrect Answers

B. Collaborate with other stakeholders and use a voting system to decide which options should be considered:
While collaboration is important, using a voting system to decide on feature additions without validating the data can lead to decisions that may not address the root cause of the problem.

C. Agree with the stakeholder and add features to the Product Backlog as it might increase your customer base:
Adding features based on stakeholder pressure without validating the need through data can result in wasted resources and may not solve the underlying issue of a declining customer base.

Responsibilities in Scrum

• Product Owner: The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product by making informed decisions based on data and stakeholder input. They should validate hypotheses and ensure that changes to the Product Backlog are driven by evidence.
• Scrum Master: The Scrum Master supports the Product Owner by facilitating discussions and experiments to validate assumptions and decisions. They help ensure that the team follows Scrum principles.
• Developers: Developers work on implementing features and can contribute to designing and running experiments to validate product decisions.

Relevance to the PSPO II Exam

Understanding how to manage stakeholder influence while relying on data-driven decisions is essential for the PSPO II exam. This knowledge ensures that Product Owners can make strategic decisions that align with the product’s long-term goals and market realities.

Key Takeaways

• Balancing stakeholder influence with data-driven decisions is crucial for effective product management.
• Running experiments can help validate assumptions and guide informed decision-making.
• Product Owners should prioritize data and evidence over opinions to ensure the product’s success.

Conclusion

As a Product Owner, it is vital to consider stakeholder input while making decisions based on data and evidence. By running experiments and validating assumptions, you can ensure that your product decisions are aligned with market realities and customer needs. For more information on preparing for the PSPO II exam, visit our PSPO II Exam Prep.