Day 19: Ask to prioritize your project higher than other work

P2 bugs were piling up in our organization, product quality was suffering, but we kept shipping feature after feature. The engineering team was frustrated, customers were complaining, and tech debt was mounting.

So I pitched a “fit-and-finish fixit” week - focused solely on cleaning up quality issues. Here’s how I got it prioritized over planned launches.

𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. Whether it's a critical dependency, blocking bug fixes, or infrastructure work benefiting multiple teams, showing clear business impact is the key here.

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: "I know your team has a full roadmap, but I wanted to discuss prioritizing [specific work] because [specific business reasons]. This would unblock [specific outcomes] and I think the ROI justifies moving it up in the queue."

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
✔ Leads with business impact, not personal preferences
✔ Shows you understand competing priorities
✔ Demonstrates strategic thinking about outcomes
✔ Positions you as someone who thinks beyond your own work

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵:
• Clear business justification and metrics
• Impact on multiple teams or customer experience
• What you're willing to contribute to make it happen
• Timeline flexibility if needed

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲: You've proven you can influence cross-team priorities and think strategically about business needs.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸: Ask what would make it more compelling or how to phase the work differently.

The best ideas don’t always come from the top but they do need a clear pitch to rise to the top.

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✅ Want to get even better at asking? I still have a limited number of seats left in the July 25 cohort of my course. Last cohort of this year! https://maven.com/chaitali-narla/outstanding-tech-career