Dev: We have a data quality problem. Combined with data silos, we can't trust the numbers. We need to agree on metric definitions as a company.

CTO: (Points a PM)Help him on the metrics he has defined. We'll discard any other alternate definitions inside the company.

PM: You can start with these. (Throws a bunch of metrics without their definitions. Doesn't respond to questions regarding definitions.)

After a week of generating aggregates,

PM: The numbers seem wrong.

Fuck I know the numbers will be wrong. Because you didn't give me the definitions and I'll have to deduce them myself.

Seriously guys, how do you deal with PMs who don't cooperate in the requirement analysis?

Ask from the beginning for the definitions and don't continue until you have them to ensure the job requirements are met.

@NeatNerdPrime I did. I insist the team to not start Dev work until the requirements are clear with timelines. But no one seems to care about producing quality data.

You are getting payed?
Then CYA, and keep doing what they tell you.

do you have a public chat room within your company?

The best way I found to deal with unresponsive colleagues and higher ups is to go through public spaces or with tagging extra managers in c.c. of emails. This way all your efforts and communication is completely transparent and if a task is slipping you can point out to all the communication that you're actually trying to get a good quality work done, but you're lacking cooperation. Plus, if you tag other people the other person doesn't know or knows they are important, he's more likely to respond anyway.

So I usually go through private message first, and if I'm not getting a response within a couple of days I send a reminder in a public way somewhere. It doesn't always work, but it's a good practice anyway.

Yeah I agree with @Hazarth - sometimes if I know I have to communicate to a problematic person who avoids clear direction, I will immediately tag the entire team to ensure they feel a lil bit of pressure that they need to. Then I just leave it alone. From my perspective, people at my company need to gain my trust before I start trusting them…

@Hazarth Agree. More context on the what happened before he sent the metrics.

Day 1: I sent him a message asking for a meeting or any document on the list of metrics. No response from him.
Day 3: (I kept pinging him on DM everyday and he didn't respond) I scheduled a meeting and put a message in the group chat which the CTO has created.

Day 4: PM ignored the meeting. When I checked with him 10 minutes into the meeting, he said he'll be there in 5 mins. Never showed up. I rescheduled the meeting posting a same message cc-ing the CTO.

Later I asked him in person about his absence. Also told him that this is not a behaviour that anyone would expect.

Guy then went on to the group and posted a message that we don't need a meeting and throwed me a bunch of metrics. Even the CTO didn't give a damn after informing him of these incidents.

Sorry for the long rant though.

I also came to know recently that he was an ex-colleague of the CTO and referred by the CTO himself.

Mail the request and CC every star known to mankind.

@kaipulla You handled this perfectly. You gave the PM 3 options to respond (direct message, group message, meeting) and you made it clear to others what was up.

You did all you could.

If I give them your PM and CTO benefit of the doubt maybe all I can guess is that they were kinda busy and tried to juggle too many things at once so they didn't quite read your messages properly, tried doing half-assed job. And now they've gotten even more busy so they haven't even had time to read your criticism yet.