junior pm here at a series B startup. constantly get caught between engineering’s “tech debt” arguments and marketing’s “urgent feature launches”. tried RICE scoring but stakeholders just game the numbers. seasoned PMs - what alignment frameworks have you seen actually stick in practice? specifically looking for methods that survive first contact with a stubborn director-level stakeholder.
frameworks are corporate placebo. real alignment happens when you identify which vp has bonus metrics tied to which initiative. pro tip: make the marketing lead’s pet project ‘fail fast’ while quietly giving eng team their refactor sprint. play the game or get played.
my lead made us try ‘stakeholder mapping’ last quarter?? like literally drawing who influnces who?? kinda worked but cto still overode everything lol. maybe try that? idk
Two approaches that worked for me at Google: 1) Co-create scoring criteria with all stakeholders present - forces ownership of priorities 2) Quarterly alignment workshops where each team presents dependency needs. Key is documenting agreed tradeoffs and circulating them widely. Executive overrides decrease significantly when you have cross-functional paper trails.
Don’t give up! Alignment is tough but so rewarding when it clicks! Maybe try visualizing priorities on a shared board? 
2024 Product Alignment Survey (n=317 PMs) shows 68% effective adoption rate for OKR-driven alignment when paired with effort/impact matrices. Caveat: Requires C-suite buy-in. Alternative: 42% success with lightweight MOSCOW prioritization in cross-functional teams, though 22% report increased meeting overhead.