Disagreement with Engineering: Taking on Risk
There are several reasons engineering partners get frustrated with product managers. The one I want to discuss today is taking on risk.
Because the engineering manager on a software product is responsible for the making and building of the product, they will often be 3 to 4 steps ahead of their product counter part thinking about risk.
Risk: a situation involving exposure to danger.
When we come up with new ideas for how to improve the product, product managers might not be as focused on the risk as their partners. (Same can be said for legal and public relations.)
I bring this up because the often feared question: Tell me about a disagreement with your engineering partner, can often be answered by talking about a disagrement around risk.
If you can elevate your conversation to the issue of risk, you can speak first at a high-level of where the difference of opinion originated. This is better than fixating on little details. The
If the key takeaway of the story is you disagreed about the risk factors. Jump to that. Share:
How you identified risk profiles were different?
How did you regain trust?
What were the compromises?
How do you avoid these disagreements or disconnects in the future.
Next time you think about a disagreement with your engineering partner, try asking yourself, when did we have a difference of opinion on risk.