Exchange Rates

Over the last few weeks, I've had the same conversation with a number of friends who are involved in end of year planning cycles. All of them inevitably say something like "[NAME] just doesn't understand why this is a priority."

While the common point of frustration is a misunderstanding, I think the deeper issue is that person can't translate what's being said into something they understand.

Each discipline/department within an organization has a currency in which they primarily transact. For sales & finance, it's revenue. For design, it's the user experience. For product, it's features.

Effective prioritization requires establishing exchange rates between these different currencies.

Doing this allows the trade offs and tensions within a roadmap to be converted into understood units, unblocking people to actually debate about an investment, rather than argue which of their currencies is worth more.

People who are earlier in their career often are unaware of these other currencies because they only transact in their own. As you get more senior, you are not only aware of these other currencies, but you make sure that your understanding of exchange rates is correct so that you and your partners view opportunities or priorities with the same lenses.