One of the most common tensions between Product and Sales sounds like this:
Sales:
“We need this to close the deal.”
Product:
“This feels like a one-off.”
It’s an old conflict. It shows up in startups, growth companies, and large enterprises alike.
And most teams treat it as a prioritization debate.
It isn’t.
The real question is: what game are we playing?
Whether building for a single deal is rational or reckless depends almost entirely on stage and intent.
If you’re early - genuinely validating a market - then building in response to real deals can be signal. It may not be elegant. It may be expensive. But it can accelerate learning.
In that context, speed can matter more than scalability.
But if you’re in a growth stage, trying to build a repeatable, scalable business, the calculus changes.
At that point, building for individual deals without clear segmentation can quietly distort the product.
Not because Sales is wrong.
But because the company hasn’t agreed on what it’s optimizing for.
The alignment most teams skip
Before arguing about a feature, step back.
Ask:
Are we aligned on the ideal customer profile?
What does the actual pipeline tell us about who is buying?
Are these deals part of a repeatable segment - or isolated exceptions?
Is the product accountable for validating demand - or for scaling it?
If Product and Sales don’t share answers to those questions, then every urgent request will feel personal.
It isn’t.
It’s structural.
The uncomfortable implication
If Sales is consistently pushing what Product experiences as “one-off” work, one of two things is happening:
The company is still validating - and Product is underestimating that reality.
The company claims to be scaling - but is still behaving like it’s validating.
Both are legitimate strategies.
What isn’t legitimate is pretending you’re doing one while operating like the other.
The higher-level move
Executive product presence doesn’t show up in how well you say “no” to one-off requests.
It shows up in your ability to elevate the conversation:
Are we building for a segment - or for a deal?
And is that choice intentional?
When that’s clear, tension decreases.
When it isn’t, every roadmap discussion becomes a power struggle.
A question to think about:
💬 Are your current “one-off” requests actually misalignment — or are they revealing that your company hasn’t decided whether it’s validating or scaling?
Hit reply and tell me - I love hearing your thoughts.
Until next week,
Elena Leonova
Executive product & business-strategy leader
I work with senior product leaders, Directors, and VPs to help them master product strategy when decisions are high-stakes, ambiguous, and made at scale - where trade-offs matter and the cost of getting it wrong is real.
This newsletter reflects the thinking behind my work across:
• Product Executive education - From PM to Product Executive (Maven cohort)
• Advisory & coaching - product strategy and executive decision-making
• Writing & research - including my forthcoming book The Art of Platform Products
Maven cohort: https://maven.com/elena-leonova/from-pm-to-product-executive
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenleonova
Website: https://elenleonova.com