How Real Product Issues Highlight Engineering Conflict
Situation: During the development phase of our B2B SaaS platform, we faced a significant challenge regarding the integration of an off-channel communication feature, specifically for WhatsApp. Our engineering team had written custom scripts to capture WhatsApp messages, as WhatsApp does not provide an API for message capture. However, after the MVP launch, WhatsApp made updates that broke our scripts, causing the capture feature to fail. This had an immediate impact on the business as we could no longer onboard new clients, and existing clients were also affected.
In this situation, there was a conflict between the urgency of the business need and the engineering team's timeline. While the business needed an immediate resolution, the engineering team required time to investigate, test, and develop a reliable solution.
Task: As the Senior Product Manager, my role was to navigate the conflict between the business urgency and the engineering constraints. I had to ensure that the engineering team could address the issue properly without compromising the quality of the solution, while also ensuring that the business impact was minimized. Additionally, I needed to manage client expectations, keep the stakeholders informed, and ensure the team remained aligned on a clear action plan
Action:
Temporary Solution: I informed clients of the issue, assuring them that we’d capture messages from where we left off, minimizing data loss.
Engineering Prioritization: I worked with engineering to shift focus and prioritize resolving the WhatsApp issue over other tasks, adjusting the product roadmap and updating stakeholders regularly.
Client Communication: I kept clients updated, managed expectations, and assured them that all messages were captured once the fix was deployed.
Preventive Measures: We switched off auto-updates and set a dedicated weekend window for updates and testing to prevent future disruptions.