The Art Of Pushback For Data Product Managers And Leaders
I received an excellent question yesterday in my Data Product Manager class. How do we push back against ad hoc requests for data, presentations, or reports from an executive of C-level leaders? In these cases, we don’t have the option to say “No,” even when the request will have downstream impacts.
Derailing the data team from the work we are committed to doing happens one small request at a time. It only takes a few distractions to push critical products back by weeks or months. That's the danger and what we need to avoid using pushback.
Should We ALWAYS Push Back?
Unfortunately, the business will inject fire drills into the data team’s schedule outside the defined planning process. Prioritization is a critical Data Product Manager and Data Team Leader function. They protect the data team from being pulled in several directions and allow them to focus on high-value work.
Pushback isn’t always the appropriate response. The crisis or immediate need could be a higher priority, so it must be managed. In other cases, doing someone a favor is worth the negative impact to build a strong relationship with our customers and users. That’s a critical behavior for coalition building, creating momentum and support for data initiatives in the long run.
Jeremy Ravenel (CEO of NaaS.ai) brought up 2 strategies to deal with those requests.
Have a single resource (a rotation where each person on the data team takes a week) dedicated to fielding these requests.
Setting aside a single day each week to manage these requests.
Pushing Back By Accelerating And Redirecting
However, pushback against leaders, customers, stakeholders, and external teams is often necessary. When frameworks to manage legitimate requests fail, the data team needs cover. Here’s where accelerate and redirect (A&R) comes in.
It’s a Judo concept. Someone throws a punch at you and moves all their momentum behind it. I can block and absorb that energy or dodge and avoid it. There’s a 3rd option. I can add more momentum to the punch and redirect it.
By adding momentum or accelerating it, I am exploiting my attacker's mistake. They are only balanced in their punch’s vector. I remove some of their balance by pulling their arm towards me. That’s counterintuitive because the last thing I’d want to do is make their attack stronger. By taking over their momentum, I’ve made it easier to redirect it since their balance has been disrupted.
Similarly, accelerate and redirect takes the other person's point from a 3 to an 11. The idea is to accelerate the other person's point and create a bit of a caricature. I use the technique to make the ridiculousness of the request obvious. That's the acceleration I'm going for.