Don't Stay Neutral

How product managers can lead with a clear point of view

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Leading With a Point of View

As a product manager, you often face tough decisions. The best way to move forward is to set a clear direction and communicate your point of view to the team.

A Point of View (POV) document is a powerful tool for this.  It allows you to quickly prototype a solution, gather feedback, and align everyone on your perspective. This isn’t just for senior product managers—it’s a practical framework that can be leveraged to cut through ambiguity and drive meaningful progress.

In some scenarios, staying neutral or waiting for consensus can slow you down. Sometimes you need to take a position and work to a conclusion together.   Here are two common situations where a POV can make a critical difference:

1. Your pricing is too complicated, leading to confusion and sales friction.

2. Competitors are announcing better features than your product has

In both of these cases, a POV can help rally your team, clarify the next steps, and spark the innovations needed to move your product forward.

Scenario 1: Pricing is Too Complicated - Make It Clear

Your pricing has many variables depending on the type of user, the scale of the customer, and feature tiers.  You have prepared a big ordering guide for sales.  Still, sales teams struggle to explain pricing to potential customers.

A neutral position will prolong the problem and lead to frustration.

How a POV Can Help:

A POV shows the problem, the options, and the proposed next steps.  In this case, it looks like:

1. Problem

   1. Product managers are needed 50% of the time to quote a price

   2. 4 items to price for low-revenue commercial customer

2. Options considered

   1. Continue with custom pricing

   2. Single tier of pricing for all customers

   3. Three tiers of pricing

3. Next steps

   1. Segment customers to validate tiers

   2. Evaluate the impact on the forecast

   3. Decide implementation steps

Here is the storyline for handling pricing complexity in 3 slides for your POV:

Scenario 2: Competitor Features are Better - Focus on What Matters

Competitors have announced features that put your product at a disadvantage.  There is a lot of pressure to catch up.  Feature parity with competitors doesn't align with your product's strategy.

Staying neutral will divert resources from your long-term strategy.    Rushing features out that customers don't need won't grow your product.

How a POV Can Help:

A POV shows the problem, the options, and the proposed next steps.  In this case, it looks like:

1. Problem

   1. Competitors are adding AI features

   2. Customer-requested AI features are coming soon

2. Options considered

   1. No change; continue with the roadmap

   2. Accelerate low-effort AI features

   3. Pre-announce your AI features

3. Next steps

   1. Review with trusted customers

   2. Explore pre-announcement with marketing & sales

   3. Determine the value of pre-announcement

   4. Final decision

Here is the storyline for handling competitive feature requests in 3 slides for your POV:

The slide templates in this article are here (for Paid Subscribers)

Conclusion - Leverage the Power of a POV to Drive Action

Creating a POV transforms product managers from passive observers into drivers of meaningful action. It becomes the catalyst that leads teams toward results by turning vague challenges into clear opportunities. For many product issues, a well-crafted POV doesn’t just align teams—it sparks new ideas and creative collaboration.

When facing tough challenges like pricing complexity or intense competitive pressure, a strong POV fuels innovative solutions. The simple act of documenting issues and proposing a path forward often generates unexpected support and clarity. As a product manager, don’t wait for the team to find direction—take the lead by shaping a strong POV and setting the course for success.

In product management, neutrality stalls progress—POVs move you and your product forward.

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