How To Prioritize Features By Asking “what’s In It For The User?”
When sales, customers, and engineering all want different things, feature prioritization can quickly become reactive. The best product managers use a simple question to cut through the noise: What’s in it for the user?
In this episode of How I PM, Suresh Madhuvarsu, Co-founder and CEO of SalesTable, explains why asking this question drives better outcomes and builds trust across the organization.
Suresh’s 3-Step Approach
- Start with the User Lens
For every feature, define how it helps users complete their core process or achieve their goal faster. - Filter Non-Value Work
De-prioritize technical or one-off requests unless they directly improve user success. - Make Value Visible
Explain the impact in terms of user outcomes, not internal requests, to align stakeholders.
“Every time we prioritize a feature, we ask: what’s in it for the user? Is it helping someone complete a business process faster or solve a problem they couldn’t before?” – Suresh Madhuvarsu
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