post

Footer About

Footer Contribute

Footer Get Involved

Footer Links

Mind the Product

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

Microsoft lays off 3% of workforce while renogiating partnership with OpenAI

Podcast

How to build the right product culture during transformation – Joca Torres (Product Consultant)

B2B product management

Building Product Teams

Business Strategy

Data Driven Product Management

Digital Transformation

Diversity and Inclusion

Minimum Viable Product

OKRs

Prioritisation

Product Design

Product Research

Product Development Process

Product Ethics

Product Discovery

Product Leadership

Product Management Career

Product Strategy

Stakeholder Management

🌎 <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/" style="color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:underline;">Happy World Product Day!</a> Be sure to celebrate product, yourself, and your peers today! 🎉

Context, intent, change, purpose, constraints – a model for communicating requirements

5 difficult conversations and how to have them

DoorDash eats Deliveroo while OpenAI makes its biggest buy: This week’s news roundup

Why great product managers think like therapists

Tools and techniques to scale product teams – Charlotte King (Lead Product Manager, eBay)

Eira is an editor for Mind the Product. She's been a business journalist, editor, and copywriter for longer than she cares to think about.

Eira Hayward

<p>As <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.karrass.com/en/dr-chester-karrass?SID=1r4inf2erpk2l50hk4bseqk417">Chester Karrass</a></span> — the author of several highly-regarded books on negotiation — wisely wrote: “In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”</p>
<p>In this quick guide we outline why negotiation is such an important skill to master and how you can improve your ability to negotiate with confidence.</p>
<h2>When to negotiate</h2>
<p>It’s part of a product manager’s job to negotiate with those around them all the time, admittedly often unconsciously or in subtle ways. So whether it’s keeping team relationships going, working out what to prioritise, hammering out the details of a new remuneration package, advocating for extra budget, like it or not, the likelihood is that you’re negotiating with someone. Product managers have to negotiate all the time, so skillful negotiating can make your life (and that of your team) much easier.</p>
<h2>Why negotiate?</h2>
<p>If you see negotiation as a time to go into combat mode, then you should rethink this attitude. Good negotiation, where everyone has contributed to an agreed outcome, helps to build better relationships and can make an immense contribution to business success. Product coach and consultant <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.jenswanson.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jen Swanson</a></span> says there’s a win/win opportunity in any negotiation: “It’s much better to view negotiation as a dance rather than a battle, so that you come together in a way that works for both of you. Product managers negotiate all the time, so coming at it with a combative attitude is not a pleasant way to do your job.”</p>
<blockquote><p>It’s much better to view negotiation as a dance rather than a battle, so that you come together in a way that works for both of you</p></blockquote>
<p>There’s always an opportunity for a mutually beneficial “elegant” solution, says Jen. It’s what many people call <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/principled-negotiation-focus-interests-create-value/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">principled negotiation</a></span>, and she characterises it as “the joy in product management”. “It’s not compromise, but a different scenario that satisfies both sides,” she says, “if we’re at two different points, how do we get to alignment?.”</p>
<h2>How to negotiate with confidence</h2>
<p>While there’s a whole industry of books, training courses, and seminars on how to negotiate successfully, here are a few of our top tips for product managers:</p>
<ol>
<li>If you feel uncomfortable about negotiation, reframe it as a creative endeavour and the opportunity to create a solution that meets everyone&#8217;s needs. Doing this can turn a negative experience into a positive one.</li>
<li>Prepare by looking for mutually beneficial solutions. Assume positive intent, figure out where the other party is, what they want, and how far towards them you can move.</li>
<li>Remember to remove the personal and not to think about what you want, but what the team wants to do.</li>
<li>Remove the word “they”. Remember that no matter who you’re negotiating with, you all work for the same business, and empathy goes a long way. “Those compliance and regulatory people are keeping us out of orange jumpsuits,” jokes Jen.</li>
<li>Remind people there are only three levers you can pull — as Jen says, you can only negotiate for time, space and resources: “Product managers are always asked to deliver more value faster. Sometimes you need to remind people that you can only change these three dimensions, and ask them which one they want to discuss.”</li>
</ol>
<h2>Learn more about negotiating</h2>
<p>Mind the Product has plenty of resources to help you improve your negotiation skills.</p>
<p>This #mtpengage Manchester talk from Garry Prior, director of product at THG Ingenuity, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/negotiate-like-a-product-manager-by-garry-prior/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Negotiate Like a Pro(duct Manager)</a></span> looks at key areas to focus on, while this post from Chris Bell, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/negotiation-product-management-pursuit-compromise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Negotiation in Product Management</a></span>, also looks at principled negotiation.</p>
<p>This post,<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/negotiating-with-sales-a-guide-for-product-managers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Negotiating with Sales: A Guide for Product Managers</a></span>, offers a framework for principled negotiation with sales teams.</p>


core/freeform

Product Management Skills

Why emotional connection drives successful products: Nesrine Changuel at #mtpcon London (Google, Spotify, Microsoft)

How to keep your head about generative AI (when everyone is losing theirs) by Claire Woodcock

How to F.A.I.L. better in product by Marc Abraham

10 years Wiser: Lessons learned from scaling Wise by Nilan Peiris

Fighting product-market drift by Dave Wascha

Experiment like a boss by Merissa Silk

How to find out what your customers want by Janet Bumpas

All product management should be focused on growth by Partho Ghosh

Product, dance, and pockets of brilliance by Pippa Topp

A quick look at decision supervision by Lucy Spence

Quick read: Learning to negotiate — when, why and how

ProductTank Pune

ProductTank Hyderabad

ProductTank Valencia

ProductTank Auckland

ProductTank Helsinki

ProductTank Barcelona

ProductTank Lomé

ProductTank Wellington

ProductTank San Diego

ProductTank Canberra

ProductTank Perth

ProductTank Hong Kong

ProductTank Bangkok

ProductTank Doha

ProductTank Tel Aviv-Yafo

ProductTank Baku

ProductTank Reston

ProductTank Raleigh

ProductTank Charlotte

ProductTank Washington

ProductTank Richmond

ProductTank Cluj-Napoca

ProductTank Zagreb

ProductTank Amsterdam

ProductTank Edinburgh

ProductTank Paris

ProductTank Hamburg

ProductTank München

ProductTank Buffalo

ProductTank Manchester

ProductTank Bristol

ProductTank Oxford

ProductTank Madrid

ProductTank Des Moines

ProductTank Dallas

ProductTank Portland

ProductTank Curitiba

ProductTank Chicago

ProductTank Austin

ProductTank Philadelphia

ProductTank Montevideo

ProductTank São Paulo

ProductTank Los Angeles

ProductTank Gdansk

ProductTank Stuttgart

ProductTank Pittsburgh

ProductTank Bangalore

ProductTank Chennai

ProductTank Mumbai

ProductTank Fribourg

ProductTank Norwich

ProductTank Zürich

ProductTank Newcastle Upon Tyne

ProductTank Jacksonville

ProductTank Florianópolis

ProductTank Tallinn

ProductTank Denver

ProductTank San Francisco

ProductTank Sheffield

ProductTank Tokyo

ProductTank Valletta

ProductTank Bologna

ProductTank Vancouver

ProductTank Milano

ProductTank Columbus

ProductTank Belfast

ProductTank Montréal

ProductTank Seattle

ProductTank Lausanne

Product Management Foundations BST

Product Management Foundations ET

ProductTank Reading

ProductTank Bielefeld

Communication & Alignment BST

Communication & Alignment ET

ProductTank Frankfurt

ProductTank Bonn

Quick read: Learning to negotiate — when, why and how

Eira Hayward

Read more