The Clever PM (PN)

Tips, tricks, and hacks that help you to be a better, more clever, Product Manager.

Understanding the Equal and Opposite Reaction

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In prior articles, I discussed how one could apply the principles of Newton’s First and Second Laws of motion to their duties as a Product Manager. Here, we close the series by examining Newton’s Third Law — that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  The fact is, this law applies as much to social interactions and leading through influence as it does to interactions in the physical world.

The Third Law basically states that when one thing exerts force on another, the object of that force exerts the same amount of force in return — when sitting in a chair, for example, our bodies exert downward force on the chair, and the chair exerts upward force on us, reaching a point of equilibrium that we call “sitting”.  Similarly, when you are working with people and attempting to exert some level of influence to move a project forward, you are likely to encounter an equal and opposite exertion of force back upon you.

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Know What You Don’t Know

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A common perception of Product Managers within organizations is that we’re somewhat of a “know-it-all” — which is not always the most productive position from which to do our jobs.  Some of this perception is earned — simply a function of the broad base of knowledge, influence, and direction that we are so often assigned.  Some of this perception is biased — because we often have to make decisions based on limited information, people who disagree with those decisions will blame what they perceive to be incompetence and over-reaching.

There are many things that we can use as Product Managers to fight these perceptions — but the single biggest such weapon in our arsenal here is knowing the things that we don’t know or that we’re not confidently competent at, and ensuring that we’re actively seeking to bolster those aspects of our jobs with the support and advice of people that we and the organization trust to provide good guidance.

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Harnessing Newton’s Second Law in Product Management

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In a prior installment, I discussed how the concepts of Newton’s First Law of Motion might be understood and adapted to the world of Product Management.  Since writing that piece, I thought it would be interesting to create similar pieces for the other two Laws that Newton originally expounded.  While this sounds kind of easy — and it is for the First and Third laws — the Second Law was troubling me for a bit.

Then it hit me — in Product Management, we’re constantly working to push forward new ideas, and to ensure that the current plans fit with the state of the world, the market, and of our customers.  And we’re always doing so from a place of influence rather than authority.

So, if you look at it from that perspective, nearly everything that we do is a matter of force, which under Newton’s Second Law is the product of mass and acceleration…

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In Defense of Estimates

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In the beginning of the year, the #noestimates movement gained some attention and traction in the software development world.  It’s an interesting position, with some strong arguments in its favor — but personally I find it to be entirely development-focused and that it ignores the business and customer realities that we as Product Managers must wrangle with every single day.

Of course, most Product Managers don’t approach estimates in the right way, so it’s no wonder that developers feel that their time and effort is being wasted.  But the answer isn’t to dispose of estimates altogether, but rather to ensure that they’re being obtained and used in appropriate ways.

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Products At Rest Tend to Stay At Rest

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Everyone knows Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object at rest will stay at rest until moved by an external force. The same is true with products.

I’ve been a Product Manager for about 15 years, working in a variety of markets, and primarily focused on B2B or niche B2C products and platforms. And the one thing that seems to be consistent is that once a product comes to rest, it takes an incredible feat of will to get it moving again.

Take, for example, your typical B2B solution — originally build 4–5 years ago to solve a specific problem for a specific set of users and use cases. Then, as a victim of its own success, additional capabilities were bolted on as needed, guided likely by nothing more than the vision of the CEO and the requests of the company’s biggest customers. Little attention paid to general marketability of the solution, and even less paid to the user experience — at least at the end user level.

After 5 years, the product is moderately successful, but has come to rest — the prospects keep buying it, and the customers keep using it. But what’s hiding underneath all that success is a cancer. Because the product has come to rest, it will stagnate quickly, fall behind technologically, and become prey to the next up-and-comer who sees the opportunity in solving the same set of problems with more finesse and likely with more private funding.

The solution here is ostensibly an easy one, though in practice it seems too difficult for many companies to grok — don’t let your product come to rest. Stay innovative, stay creative, stay on the edge of what your customers need, and not responsive to what they say they want.

Recall that the corollary to objects at rest staying at rest is that objects in motion tend to stay in motion — make sure your product is always moving, always growing, always adapting to the world around it. Or someone else will.