Decline a feature request from an important stakeholder without burning the relationship: the real reason, the reframe, and what you offer instead.
Help me say no. The request: {{request}} from {{stakeholder}} ({{their_importance}} — big customer? exec? loud voice?). The real reason it's a no: {{reason}} (doesn't fit strategy, tiny audience, huge cost, better solved differently).
Build: the acknowledgment that shows I understood the underlying PROBLEM (not just the requested solution — often the request is one solution to a problem we can address differently), the honest no with the real reason at the right altitude ('it serves too few users for its cost' is respectable; 'it's not on the roadmap' is a brush-off), the alternative if one exists (a workaround, a smaller version, the different solution to their actual problem), what would change the answer (honest conditions, not false hope), and the relationship line — the door stays open. Two versions: email, and the talking points for saying it live.
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