Let’s say that just like myself, you have had the amazing fortune to lead a product that is the undisputed leader in its market for years. Through partnering with Engineering and pushing your team and yourself to make the product the best possible. Let’s also say that you managed to make the product a part of your company’s main sales motion. Now, assume that during your tenure with the product, you made sure it focuses on solving the hairiest problems customers have, as well as understanding there’s much risk for the Product Manager while doing so. Nothing yet that should have anything about dealing with crisis, right?
So, what’s the problem, you ask? Well, imagine this – tens of thousands of large customers deploying your product. Add to this an immense sales force (of over 10,000 salespeople) that is all-speed-ahead with selling it even more. Now, consider the fact that the product is an infrastructural product that deems your network completely dysfunctional if it failed. Start to see the picture? Think about the importance of the power company to a business, this is the product line. This is the team. Both of which I managed. And then…
When All Hell Breaks Loose
Crisis Management Strategies
There are multiple strategies for crisis management. Some strategies revolve around the saying “let’s ignore it and this too shall pass”. Some around “let’s turn the spotlight to another place”. These two are very common in politics but also very prevalent in business. I’ve used them all, they all work in certain situations. However, there is one crisis management strategy that not only I like using the most, I feel like it defines me. It is who I am that makes me believe that this methodology should be the first one to use. The challenge is that in Corporate America, vulnerability is a four-letter word…
Simon Sinek, who probably made the most impact on me as a leader, said in a video interview to inc.com that vulnerability doesn’t mean sharing the darkest moments. Yet instead – admitting that mistakes were made and that there is some level of uncertainty. With customers, I believe it is critical to share the fact that mistakes were made, and at the same time to show that there’s a good and strong plan to fix what the mistakes created. I’ve also discussed the importance of vulnerability internally, and now is the time to discuss it around external situations. This post talks (in length, I know) about dealing with crisis from a product perspective and from a Product Management and leadership perspective.
My go-to strategy is being authentic and vulnerable. I always ask myself in such situations – how do I show customers that I know that the situation is serious? How do I genuinely, yet without exposing the company – admit that there is a problem? How do I convey that I also know what needs to be done to fix it? Playing it smart will also ensure you don’t overexpose your company from a legal perspective. If customers feel that you’re not taking the issue seriously enough, this might go out of control. If your customers are having some real trouble and you just wing it off and act as if this is “just a dent”… it will lead to chaos. You’ll have higher chances of your customers tearing you apart and claim you’re undersizing the criticality.
Answers, not just Fixes
Don’t get me wrong – everyone was busy taking care of the situation. The engineering team was busy fixing issues and working on a plan. They were releasing patches like crazy to fix high severity bugs. At the same time, customers started pressing us for answers while talking to support and with escalation Engineers. Multiple messages were going to different customers from different people. Since everybody understood that we are dealing with a crisis here, everybody thought they should say something, do something. It was uncoordinated, it was quite a mess. Looking at what was happening was so stressful – it felt as if we were being crushed by our own weight.
Since the product is an infrastructural one, customers demanded not just the fixes – they demanded ANSWERS. How do we make sure their network won’t fail again? How can we ensure that their end-users don’t find themselves disconnected and non-productive?
Thankfully, since I started to lead the product line around 3 years earlier, I’ve pushed everyone to make the product a real good one. As I said earlier – it was solving quite some problems for customers, and we made it even better in solving more, and hairier, problems. As a result, customers were all-in in terms of investment, and most (if not all) of them didn’t even consider replacing it. They wanted us to make it better for them. The product’s value was huge for customers – which could’ve made us somewhat snobbish, couldn’t it?
Regain Trust while Staying Humble
Even though we could’ve, never did I allow anyone to even contemplate with a “these customers can’t live without us, they won’t leave” type of thought. That is a thought a PM should NEVER have. Your customers ALWAYS have a choice, even if your product is NOT an easy one to replace.
Very consciously, I have decided to show vulnerability and commit to fixing what’s broken. As the crisis created a trust issue, I decided that dealing with this crisis had to look at the fastest way to regain trust – and vulnerability is probably one of the fastest, though not the easiest, ways to regain it. Doing so allowed me to buffer for Engineering – letting them focus on fixing the problems while my team and I will handle communications. I have taken the place in front of customers and became what PMs are expected to be – “The Face of the Product”.
Clearer for Everyone
A Simple Plan that Caters for Everyone
Who's There when the PM is NOT?
In a large company and with a product that spans over tens of thousands of customers, PMs can’t get in front of every customer, no matter how hard they try. Believe me – if I could, I would – I really felt ownership and wanted to lead from the front, but there’s no way to do that with so many customers. The people that face these customers daily are the account teams. And during crises, you have to make sure they are on your side. If they aren’t, they will not be able to convey the message and trust us to fix the problem for our customers.
This comes from my sales background – I have been multiple times in situations where a product didn’t work as expected, and the customer still trusted me to “make it better”, liaising with the “back end” of the company – the business unit, the support department, and others. I believe I was just like any other good SE – and good SEs are always such that gain the customer’s trust. But how would an SE gain that trust when they have no control over what is happening? It is the PM that has control. And if the SE can’t trust the PM, they will not convey a message that will breach the customer trust. Dealing with a crisis doesn’t mean that the PM or the leader has to deal with it directly, all the time, it means that you have to enable and empower others to support you – and regaining trust with your internal partnerships is critical here.
From a “working with sales” perspective, PMs must ensure that the account teams feel comfortable with where the product is and where it is going. I have decided to take an active stance, ensuring that sales feel that I am together with them “in the ditch”. I have conveyed this to their customers, my customers, multiple times a day, in multiple occurrences, either over video calls or face to face. Every time an account team reached out to ask how can we help with a customer – I personally jumped on the opportunity. I almost automatically volunteered to get in front of the customer to convey the message.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
For about 18 months, I was physically devastated – I had multiple days where I had 4 or 5 or even 7 meetings a day. In some cases where strategic customers were hit, I had to physically fly over to meet them. In some cases – fly 5 hours, meet the customer, fly back. I can’t even explain the fatigue, the frustration – yet I knew that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. This allowed me to both carry on but also to be very positive in meetings.
I always started meetings with a message similar to “we are aware that we are causing you problems and we appreciate the fact that you are meeting us and bearing with us”. Second, I followed with the likes of “we are currently working on fixing this quickly, and I will be sharing with you today the steps going forward”. Lastly, I shared our “three steps plan” – short term, mid-term, and finally – long term. The short term plan tackled the immediate need for the customer to become whole again, while the mid-term and long term showed that we are not just about a band-aid solution but instead making sure it will go away and never come back.
For these 18 months, I spent hours repeating the same message. Over and over again – with different customers, with different teams. The message has to be received. You have to remember that dealing with crises means a lot of doing the same thing over and over again – if it was something that could’ve been done with a single magic word, well, probably it wasn’t a real crisis.
Light at the End of the Crisis
But it worked, from so many directions and reasons – first and foremost and most importantly – customers truly appreciated the vulnerable message. When your child admits that they were wrong and shouldn’t eat the extra cookie or should have finished their homework, it is psychologically harder to punish them – parents (rightfully so or not, it’s not the subject of this article) sometimes use punishments to root out bad behaviors, and if your child already understood their wrongdoing. So what’s the benefit of punishing them? Most of the responses from customers were similar to “ok, I’ll sit tight and wait while you fix everything, just tell me you’re going to help get through this phase” – to which I’ve committed.
Second, account teams (Account Managers, Regional Managers, System Engineers, and such) were thankful – they felt that they are not alone in the battlefield and that we’re jumping in to save the situation and not let them fumble in front of the company alone.
Third and as much as important, Engineering felt that Product Management (my team, my managers, and myself) were buffering for them and allowing them to fix things while they don’t even have to have these hard discussions with customers. They could focus on fixing the issue and appreciated that they don’t need to squiggle uncomfortably in their chair while personally admitting failure.
All stakeholders were appreciative of the process – and customers, who are the most important stakeholder for a company, felt that they are treated seriously and that they can trust us. While dealing with a crisis, we have to remember that a crisis usually has multiple stakeholders it impacts, and it is the leader’s responsibility (and opportunity!) to ensure everyone feels well treated and that they can trust what is happening and who is leading. No money and no marketing message can buy this.
Summary - Calming Crises with Vulnerability
Being vulnerable in an authentic way is a great method of dealing with crisis and also an amazing leadership strategy. It is not the only one, and sometimes admitting mistakes the wrong way exposes you legally. This can be done right. This can be done in an authentic way that not only doesn’t expose you, it limits exposure. It can be done in a way that shows the customers that these problems are inevitable but you are serious about fixing them. Most importantly – this is a great way of dealing with a crisis as it shows your seriousness about fixing the issues at hand.
Practice vulnerability, be authentic. Show that you’re willing to take responsibility and to learn from mistakes (your own and the teams’ you are representing). Do it while showing that you are on top of the issues and doing whatever you can to course correct.
Any thoughts around dealing with crisis? About the need of vulnerability? Don’t be a stranger – start a discussion below!
