Are product managers consensus-builders?

One counterintuitive requirement for successful product managers:

Product management is usually seen as a job requiring great communication skills, stakeholder management, and consensus building. This is true, of course, however in my opinion, it’s more important for PMs to be unrelenting in standing up for and pursing their ideas. I don’t mean to go off on hunches, but I mean to form educated opinions based on a deep understanding of a problem area, identifying user personas, and their needs/wants.

Companies that prioritize consensus between internal stakeholders have PMs that act like deal brokers, working on ideas that everyone agrees on. By definition, consensus draws you to the mean. You will avoid the extreme of bad ideas, but you will also avoid innovative ideas. One successful-Netflix anecdote is Reed Hastings stopping shows because they were “too successful”, which meant Netflix wasn’t failing enough and his team was not taking enough risk.

Consensus is good -but not all the time. If you’re not failing, you’re not taking enough risk. One reason might be your decision-making culture.