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Module
Module 4 of 6Lesson 2 of 2~12 min

Say no, or not now, without closing the door

How to turn down or defer a request without damaging your relationship with the person behind it. Saying no with sound reasoning protects the roadmap and the team's capacity, and gives you a clear path when a disagreement has to go up to the person who makes the call.

Take this lesson: your first course is freeSee the full syllabus

Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to answer a request with a principled no, a “not now” with a criterion or a conditional “yes, if”, and to have a lasting disagreement settled by the right person, with quantified options.

Questions this lesson answers

  • How do you say no to a feature request without damaging the relationship?
  • What do you say when you can't act on a request right away?
  • How do you escalate a roadmap disagreement to the right person?

Topics covered

  • saying no as a PM
  • declining a request
  • product trade-offs
  • stakeholder management
  • product negotiation

Where it fits

Stakeholders and requests

How do I handle requests from sales, support and leadership without losing either direction or trust?

Lessons in this module

  1. Handle requests from sales and other stakeholders
  2. Say no, or not now, without closing the door (this lesson)

What you will learn in this module

This lesson is part of the course Prioritize and build an outcome-based roadmap

  • Handle requests from sales, support and leadership starting from the problem behind them, and say no or not now with reasons.

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