Creating successful products requires balancing user needs with business objectives. While user-centered design is essential, products must also support company goals like revenue growth, market expansion, or competitive positioning.

To effectively balance these priorities in practical ways:

• Map user needs to business outcomes - For example, improving search functionality (user need) can increase conversion rates (business goal)
• Use the RICE framework (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) to score features based on both user value and business impact
• Create shared KPIs that measure both user satisfaction, such as Net Promotor Score (NPS) or CSAT(Customer Satisfaction Score) and business results (revenue, conversion)
• Hold regular cross-functional meetings where different perspectives can be heard before making trade-off decisions
• Segment features into "must-have" versus "nice-to-have" categories from both user and business perspectives
• Plan your roadmap with a mix of user-focused improvements and business-driven initiatives

The most successful products create win-win scenarios where solving user problems directly contributes to business success. When conflicts arise, the product manager's role is to facilitate productive discussions and find compromise solutions through phasing features, exploring alternatives, or making informed priority decisions.^[1]