Buy in - A Product Management Essential

Obtaining buy-in is essential to getting any product off the ground. Products can succeed or fail for many different reasons – but one way to absolutely ensure failure is not getting buy-in from ALL stakeholders. Stakeholders include, but aren't limited to: management, engineering, sales, and most importantly users. Selling these teams and ensuring they believe in you and the product is essential to your product succeeding.

Buy-in from Management: In many cases this is the toughest sell and these guys control the resources. Management can be extremely risk adverse and not ready to make changes. Politics can come into play, so you must understand them. Have the data, the desire and the direction, and your management will believe in your product.

Buy-in from Engineering: Once your management in on-board, you need to obtain buy-in from your development teams. These are the guys that will make your product great, and they are smart. Don't assume you know everything and listen to them. Take their advice and apply their ideas while sticking to your vision. Doing so, the engineering/development team will believe in the product and be your biggest supporters.

Buy-in from Sales: The sales team is probably the 2^nd most important sell. The sales teams can make or break your product. They must believe the product will solve their customers' problems and the product is priced appropriately. You need to convince them that you understand their customers and provide them the data they need to sell the product. 

Buy-in from your Users:  Your users should always come first. Listen to your users to set the product vision and get their feedback early and often in the development process. Successful product managers let the users drive the product and obtain their buy-in early and often.


What are some of your techniques when trying to obtain buy-in?