A key customer stakeholder requests new backlog items and asks the team to analyze new requests immediately, while pressuring them into noncritical meetings. The team is frustrated. How should the project manager handle this?

The project manager should ask the customer to work with the product owner to prioritize all requests. This is the most effective approach because the product owner is responsible for managing the product backlog, defining user stories, and prioritizing work to maximize value. Involving the product owner ensures that new requests are properly evaluated against existing priorities and integrated into the development cycle in a structured way, reducing team disruption and frustration. Working with the team to accept the customer's directions without addressing the underlying issue would not solve the problem and could lead to burnout. Holding an internal team retrospective is useful for process improvement but doesn't directly address the external stakeholder's behavior. Understanding the customer's perspective and coaching them on agile principles is a good long-term strategy but doesn't provide an immediate solution to the current disruption and might not be well-received if not handled delicately.