How do you resolve conflicting product requirements, and who determines which requirement takes priority?

Every PM has their own approach to managing these situations, so your answer may vary. However, there are important considerations that it would be useful to talk through with the interviewer.

Resolving this kind of conflict is a process that the PM should own. At a high level, we’ll need to get context on the situation, engage with stakeholders to figure out a solution, and then move forward in the chosen direction.

My goal as a PM is to ensure the success of the product.

First, we need to get context. We’ll want to understand:

• why a conflict exists in the first place,
• who are the stakeholders involved and why this is important to them,
• if there are any possible alternatives.

In the best case, we can find a solution that makes everyone happy for minimal work. If not, starting these conversations with our stakeholders lays the groundwork for finding alignment down the line.

If we can’t find an easy solution, we need to consider the relative importance of the requirements. As a PM, the bias is usually towards whichever feature is more important to the product's long-term success. However, there could be urgent short-term considerations or considerations around the effort required. Both our own sense of the product and what we learn from stakeholders will be important here.

Staying in regular communication with stakeholders about this process will be important. As solutions begin to take shape, involving our stakeholders in the process will help us find better approaches and make them feel more comfortable with whatever direction we choose.

The main challenge here is that a stakeholder might be disappointed, even if we involve them in the process. There’s a possibility that they escalate in order to drive their needs.

Once a direction is set, the team executes on it. At this point, the team should be aligned on the direction. However, don’t be surprised if the need we deprioritized pops up again elsewhere. Its importance could grow as the product develops or user needs change. It can be useful to keep track of previous discussions & decisions to refer back to in the future.