You are the PM for a mobile-first sports betting product with millions of monthly active users and a business that depends heavily on major sporting events for revenue spikes. Your team is facing a roadmap conflict: product wants to ship features aimed at improving bettor engagement and cross-sell, while engineering is pushing foundational work to improve bet slip reliability, odds update latency, and release velocity before the next NFL season. Recent data shows bet slip abandonment has risen from 18% to 24% during peak traffic windows, while a proposed engagement feature is projected to increase same-game parlay adoption by 6-8%. Leadership wants a clear recommendation on what should be built first.
How would you decide what to prioritize first when product growth opportunities and engineering platform needs are competing, and how would you make the case for your recommendation?