Hey all, mid-level PM here at a SaaS scale-up. I’m drowning in competing requests from sales, engineering, and execs who all claim their asks are ‘urgent.’ I’ve tried the classic ‘priority matrix’ but it just gets ignored in the chaos. The Cynical Veteran mentioned something about ‘alignment theater’ tactics in another thread – would love to hear concrete examples. How do you seasoned PMs enforce realistic guardrails without burning bridges? Especially curious about frameworks beyond RACI that worked in messy real-world scenarios.
raci schmaci – that crap works until the vp of buzzwords decides they want to ‘disrupt the prioritization paradigm.’ real talk: keep a paper trail. email every ‘urgent’ request with ‘confirming this pushes back X feature’ in writing. suddenly their urgency disappears. works 60% of time, every time.
how do u handle pushback when stakeholders say their thing IS the priority? tried pushing back once and got cc’d on a thread with the cto 
pls help
A framework I’ve used successfully: Implement a DACI (Driver Approver Contributor Informed) model with clear escalation paths. For example, during a recent platform migration, we designated engineering leads as Drivers for technical feasibility decisions, while sales stakeholders were kept as Informed. This reduced conflicting demands by 40% quarter-over-quarter. The key is socializing the framework through cross-functional workshops before fire drills occur.
You’ve got this! Stakeholder passion means people care 
Maybe try a collaborative icebreaker workshop to align visions? Positive energy creates miracles!
Was in this exact spot last year when marketing kept demanding last-minute campaign integrations. Start tracking ‘request impact hours’ - showed how their ‘small tweaks’ consumed 30% of eng bandwidth. Presented it as helping THEM get more features shipped. Worked surprisingly well until the CMO changed anyway.
2023 PM Efficiency Survey shows teams using weighted scoring models reduce stakeholder conflicts by 28% vs priority matrices. Key factors: Assign numerical values to strategic alignment (0-3) and implementation effort (1-5). Publish scores transparently. Forces quantitative justification over subjective ‘urgency.’