[pfarnsworth]

No, I completely disagree.

They should have input (ie. ability to make suggestions) but should no say. The Product Manager, who is in theory supposed to have all the metrics and has talked to all the customers, should be the one making the INFORMED decision based on DATA.

Sales is motivated by making the sale. Period, end of story. They want the sale because it makes them money. There's nothing wrong with that because that is exactly their job description, but it biases their decisions. Its their customer, and they want whatever that specific customer wants because it affects their salary. That's not healthy for the company.

The product manager should have the freedom to make decisions based on what is best for the company and for the large collections of customers. If they need to change the roadmap, which happens OFTEN in real life, they should do that because it's healthy for the company. They shouldn't be held to a feature because some salesperson promised it to a customer. That's how product strategy gets fucked up.

[ukulele]

> They shouldn't be held to a feature because some salesperson promised it to a customer.

This is taking the most extreme end of the spectrum as a baseline, and suggesting the polar opposite (sales & marketing get no leeway) as a response. There are benefits in the middle of these two extremes, where you can have sales & marketing discussing potential features and also have a well defined strategy from PMs.