PoC - #4 - Product Management Game
Thoughts of the week : Building products and writing
Welcome to Pursuit of Curiosity - #4.
Greetings
Firstly I am humbled by the new signups to the newsletter.
I enjoy writing letters/ emails and find writing newsletters significantly easier than writing essays. Essays feel heavier. I have been sitting on my essay ideas for long. Hopefully more should be out over the next few weeks.
The newsletter format is not fixed as you might have realised. So feel free to give feedback on what works, what do you want to see more of , less off, none of ? My focus is going to remain primarily on the meta product management game.
This weeks newsletter talks of into my brief thoughts into what is the product management game and how my thoughts on writing have changed radically over the last few months
The Product Management Game
I get asked often is “What do you do as Product Manager ?”. I think of this meme , laugh out loud in my head and then come up with something clever to tell.
Roles within companies are to be thought of as games we play. When I first started working in product, a little shy of a decade ago, I would ask myself “What is the product manager game ?”
Over the years I have a better sense of it but I am still codifying some of the game rules.
Caveat : Product management is role that varies significantly depending company maturity, size, verticals, previous exposure to product, existence of experts, access to data and so many other factors
Here is how I think about Product Management
Top level rules
Product management is an explore and exploit game. You increase the surface area of the product with discovery and then go down a few rabbit holes.
You optimize the process for understanding uncertainty. Keyword optimize
Surprise .. You are not the miniCEO of your product !! You are closer to an orchestra conductor. You wield neither the carrot nor the stick. You need to align to motivate
You are building for your CUSTOMERs not yourself.
You are your product's biggest fan and harshest critic
You have a strong opinion on what needs to be done that is very loosely held
How do you win ?
Prioritise
Write !! Writing helps you think clearly. Write and review internal documents, emails, product pitches, decks, product copy, meeting notes, collateral, JIRA tickets.
You take sensible bets, you win some , you lose some, you learn from all. You finish ahead
Building a product is a marathon. It's not a sprint ( pun intended ). It is not a bunch of mini races. It is a slow marathon without a destination
Optimize for learning loops, velocity will take care of itself
Thinking Agile > Doing Agile. Understand the first principles behind rituals. Only apply those that are relevant
Know what you don't know, and know who can help you with that
Data is your friend but moderate them with instincts
Don't fix things just because you can
You can't fix everything
Prioritise
You can't obsess over everything. If you have to, obsess about your team.
Be comfortable with action in ambiguity (Pro Tip : Embrace It )
Sometimes building a product means removing stuff from it. That is ok.
Products fail, products die, you will make mistakes. Learn from it. Celebrate it.
Did I mention Prioritise ?
Who is rooting for you?
Customers: They have skin in the game, they have brought into you
Engineering Manager/Leads : You rise and sink together
Developers , UX, Analysts: Your personal think-tank , know their personal strengths, value their inputs
Not every product feature to be developed, learn to work closely with Marketing and sales to avoid unnecessary work
Your CXOs: Align with your CXOs. Keep surprises to a minimum on both sides
Your peers alongside the journey, other Product Managers. They have been there, done that . Leverage the community.
Yes , pretty much everyone is in your team. Make peace with that. Understand their game and help them win.
Who are your opponents ?
Time - If you don’t learn to say No , you will not have time to do anything meaningful
Information - Have a filter for information you consume. Always consumer with context for use. Too much will kill you. Too little will leave you clueless. Find the balance and timing. Read my post on this from my previous newsletter.
Being a people pleaser - self explanatory
Assumptions - we all come with preconceived notions to the table but be aware of your assumptions.
Phew that was longer than expected but still doesn't cover everything I wanted to. Perhaps a blog post is mandated.
I would love to hear your experience. Reach out on Twitter or Linkedin
Writing is a multi player game
Over the last few weeks, twice a week a few of us like-minded peers get together at the crack of dawn (I am talking around the 5am mark) on a zoom call. We tell each other what we are writing about and write in silence with the video on for almost an hour. Towards the end of the hour , we check in on each other's progress, request feedback on our work and move on to our day.
Sometimes we draw up an outline for an article, other times we refine and edit. There are times when we try to put something new together in 45 mins. Either way we dedicate 2 hours a week to the craft together.
Writing in groups is game changing, it is like a cheat code no one talks about. Here are my reasons why I feel this makes a difference
Writing in solitude is akin to working on a 5 year waterfall project not knowing what the market wants. When you write in groups you get rapid feedback. I get actionable feedback on my ideas, outlines, and my drafts in hours. This reduces wasted time on an idea
Having a couple of people show up day in and day out at the same time every week is a great forcing function to make progress. Hear me out, not one of us is demanding progress from the other but we show up every time. I am a fan of gamification of behaviour and this works wonders for me
Writing in a group can be great fun, you learn different styles and tones of writing. There is a raw and free exchange of ideas. More often than not our articles and essays take a different turn based on these early inputs. So you start off with a straw-man of an idea and you end up with something quite different
That is it for this week. Do sign up to the newsletter if you haven’t done so yet. Would love to discuss shipping and learning.
Adios and have a nice week ahead.
Ram
Hi Ram, I have been enjoying your newsletter. Articles are very relevant and well written. The idea of writing in groups sounds very interesting!