By Melissa Perri · melissaperri.com · @lissijean on X · LinkedIn
Product teams often face a flood of feature requests from support and sales, and it is hard to tell which ones deserve engineering time. Perri argues that a single question, asking how much revenue a request will generate, quickly separates valuable ideas from weak ones. She notes that claims like "all customers want this" rarely hold up as the true cause of churn or wins. Asking the question consistently also aligns colleagues with the company's revenue goals and trains them to bring better-framed requests. For non-B2B companies, she suggests substituting the north star metric.
01Key takeaways
- Ask requesters how much revenue their request will generate before evaluating it.
- Be skeptical of claims that a request affects "all" customers or is the sole reason for churn.
- Consistently asking the question teaches colleagues to frame requests around business impact.
- Fewer, better-framed requests make it easier to compare and prioritize ideas.
- If not B2B, substitute your north star metric for revenue in the same question.
02Key sections
- The flood of requests
- Product teams are overwhelmed by requests from support and sales, and choosing which to build can disappoint colleagues. Strong-sounding claims about "all customers" rarely reflect the real driver of churn or win rate.
- The single question
- Asking how much revenue a request will generate is a quick filter that cuts through competing ideas. It keeps the focus on what matters most to the business.
- Aligning the team
- Repeatedly asking the question signals that the PM's priorities match the company's growth goals. Colleagues learn to bring requests already tied to revenue, saving evaluation time.
- Adapting beyond B2B
- Non-B2B companies can apply the same question by substituting their north star metric for revenue.
03From the post
“Many product teams struggle with a deluge of requests from customer support and product teams. Figuring out which of the items to have your engineering team build is the reason you have a job as is disappointing your coworkers when their requests don’t make the cut.”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.