Wrecking ball: Making difficult decisions in product management

Nicole Castillo, VP of Strategic Products at News Corp, gave this presentation at the Product-Led Summit in New York in 2023.

Making difficult decisions is probably the most challenging but most important thing that you can do as a product manager.

I've been at News Corp for almost two years. If you don't know what News Corp is, you probably know many of our major brands, like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and The Times in London.

The importance of owning tough decisions 

Why do we hate making difficult decisions? 

Because it's stressful and it's hard. 

When I joined News Corp, one of the first things I said was, “We need to take one of the products that we support, and we need to start putting it in maintenance. We need to get ready to be sunset in the future.” 

A lot of us get really passionate about talking about discovery, building new products, and making them amazing. But what’s equally important is when to know when to shut it down, when to see the writing on the wall, when to own it, and when to be uncomfortable with making that decision. And because it’s hard and stressful, it's that much more important. 

So, you’ve got to know, and you’ve got to own that decision. Don't be afraid of it. Don't walk away from it because it could mean making your company more money. It could also be solving a problem for your users that they don't want or need. 

Hard decisions have an immense impact, and being able to defend those decisions is an even harder part. You can actually make a decision pretty quickly, but you have to be able to defend that decision and follow through on what comes next. 

That means dealing with change management and the actions that need to take place. That might mean breaking up teams and giving bad news. But this is really critical for product leaders, and we have to do it. 

When you figure this part out, you have to take your team, your company, and your products in that right direction together, no matter where that direction leads, no matter if that direction is that product being sunset. 

Making difficult decisions: A 6-step guide for product leaders

I’ve put together a go-to guide for making those difficult decisions, and I'm going to go into each part of it:

Understand what your customers really want. Evaluate the consequences. This is about looking to the future and anticipating. This is like being a chess master in your own company and seeing all the different moves you can make.

The other part that I think is really hard for everyone is to separate logic from emotion. It’s easier said than done. Sometimes, coming in fresh to an organization gives you that advantage because you don't have the trauma or the built-in love of that product, having gone through the trenches with it. 

Stick to your guns. People are going to try and send you in a different direction and ask you a very thought-provoking question like, “But did you think about this?” Nope, nope, nope. Just stick to your guns. 

The other part is communication. Communication is the lifeblood of what we do as product managers and product leaders, communicating that decision and figuring out the right storytelling for that decision to bring people on our journey.

The last one is dealing with the aftermath. This is probably the one that takes the most time.

Let's go a little bit deeper.