Getting your exec team aligned behind your roadmap is hard. In our book, Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders, Melissa Appel and I describe a number of workshop exercises to help. My favorite for complex issues or diverse opinions is called Affinity Mapping.
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In this exercise, participants post their ideas anonymously on stickies on a wall or a Miro board. They then silently arrange the stickies into groups of similar ideas, and name them. Even a little anonymity makes it safer for people to speak up. You get more ideas and no single voice dominates. People see that others are thinking the same (or the opposite!) and they come to a more durable agreement.
More exercises in Chapter 5, Roadmaps, from Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders.
Melissa and I at a thoughtful lunch of product leaders in London this month. See more ideas and photos from Product Culture on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
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Also, Melissa and I are on the great podcast, Product for Product Management, talking about avoiding mistakes as a product person. Enjoy.