Product managers or founders fulfilling this role need be great at saying NO. An outstanding product should be a cohesive entity delivering measurable value and not just a set of related features.

Saying NO is a skill that needs to be learned to use delicately, especially when having to say it to superiors. 

When your product successfully acquires initial market validation (product-market fit) and you have managed to implement the hypothesis bank, you will probably be flooded with lots and lots of ideas. And there will always be a great many reasons to say YES to them. 

In this case, it is important to meticulously respect your ICE prioritization process and dissect the hypothesis in terms of the problem it is supposed to be solving.

Once this is in place, arguments for saying NO are easy to pull. Start your pitch with:

“Good job. This is a really great idea, I can see why our customers would like it. But we’re not going to build it now. Because…”

• … the risk is high and the impact is low;
• …the problem is simply not there, they have an easy workaround for it;
• … our resources are tight and Y and Z look like better winners.

Why is NO important?

NO is important because in tech there are no small changes when you are committed to quality. Everything is always more complicated than it seems. A “small” idea can quickly blow out of proportion and affect the entire development cycle.

NO is also important because it proves you stay true to the good practices that make you a top product manager. Every time you say YES without good arguments in place you are saying NO to yourself and everything you have learned so far.