How do we balance our partner team’s integrations goals with the goals/priorities that product and engineering have?

A mass market product is the goal of any company. Partner integrations compliment that, but should never divert the 'bigger picture' (much in the same way the customer-specific development shouldn't derail the larger product plan). Like any ROI discussion, a realistic biz plan is key. This should also tie-in with your cross functional allies (in the earlier question). Bottom line, a good integration idea with broad business value is as valuable as many functional line items. • Create a Review Board: Use a formal process (with Product/Eng leads) to score integrations by impact and feasibility. • Rank Integrations by Tier: Distinguish strategic from opportunistic; assign dev effort accordingly (partner-built vs. internal). • Fund a Partner Engineering Pod: Avoid burdening core teams — use a dedicated unit for scalable partner support and QA.

Work back from what customers need, and treat integrations as product features like all others. Partner with Product and Engineering to prioritize them (P0, P1, P2 etc) and put them on the roadmap. At MotherDuck, we have such a high need for ecosystem and integrations that we staff a full-time Ecosystem Engineering team.