Product Manager Tips from 2020 for a Better 2021

“Difficulty is what wakes up the genius” has become my mantra of 2020 (thanks Nassim Taleb). If that's true then what follows should be pure gold: a collection of my best reflections for a challenging year.

This year I tried something different. I wanted to craft an article each month on an interesting thought or lesson from my life as a product manager.

Its been a fun yet challenging journey. From learning to write at an acceptable level, refining my stick-figure illustrations and of course living through a pandemic.

In this article, I’ve tried to summarise some of the most exciting ideas from the year. I hope you enjoy it and that it helps with your own reflections as we move forward together into 2021.

1. Turn your team into an idea factory

Good ideas give us more opportunities for success. 

We should encourage our teams to develop their thoughts with systems that provide them with confidence in the validity of good ideas.

The riskier the idea the more time you should probably spend thinking it through.

If you want to check you are solving a valuable problem question ask this question — how much would you need to pay somebody not to use your product?

2. Difficult conversations help difficult situations

Being confident and skilled in having a difficult conversation frees you to not only identify and work through issues before they become big problems.

Further Reading

• A product manager’s guide for difficult conversations
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended (Book)

3. Build for resilience while planning for change

Things not going to plan is a fact of life. The best we can do is put in place plans and mental models on how to be resilient to disruptive events biologically, psychologically, and socially while also keeping an eye on any opportunities that may emerge as a result.

This year it was the pandemic, next year we don’t know. But we can be mentally prepared for the worst when it emerges.

4. Product managers don’t build products, they make decisions

The creation of products is the result of a bunch of little decisions stacked together. 

The benefits of a series of healthy choices have the power to compound returns over time, so you really want to give yourself the best chance of making the best choices you can.

By leveraging decision-making models, you can run your thoughts through a range of perspectives that help engage your thinking and hopefully work through any blind spots and biases.

5. When luck happens all you can do is control your response

Luck events, both good and bad, are out of your control, unevenly distributed and inevitable. 

Being at the mercy of luck puts us into a reactive mindset which usually means we don’t make the best decisions as we try to get away or lean into luck events.

Pausing a second and being able to zoom out of the situation enables us to acknowledge a luck event is occurring. This the first step towards taking back control and planning for the best outcome now and later should such an event occur again.

Further Reading

• The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized
• Global inequality of opportunity How much of our income is determined by where we live?

6. Taking notes makes you a better thinker

In product management, we highly valued for our ability to generate valuable ideas, solve challenging problems and draw strategic insights across the disciplines of sales, tech and design. So it makes sense that anything that helps us perform those tasks more effectively will be welcomed.

A curated note-taking system that encourages you to think through what may be valuable from a range of sources is a significant first step to catalysing your thought process and its impact.

What you are actually doing is thinking about thinking; almost a form to metacognition.

Further Reading

• How To Take Notes So Good They Become Your Second Brain
• Networked Thinking Meets Product Thinking

7. Understanding user problems requires second-order thinking

When people describe a pain point, it can be tempting to deal exclusively with that problem, when actually the real issue lies hidden beneath the surface. 

It’s the equivalent of a patient taking opioids for a painful knee when rather physiotherapy to strengthen the joint would resolve the underlying problem.

For example, a user tells us their search results are not relevant, we could fiddle around with the ranking system to make it more relevant, but solving their problem actually requires a deeper understanding of their intent.

We need to use a process of second-order emotional thinking to identify the most valuable problems and put ourselves in the position of the user. This enables us to image the world the way our user sees it and use the same language they use to describe it.

8. A system for building systems makes a happy team

Three principles I’ve learned for fostering a healthy project team include

1. The ability for one's mind to be changed
2. A process of collecting feedback from teammates and users
3. A system for developing systems when things don’t go to plan

9. Please motivate your team, but responsibly

Use motivation to inspire teams, but don’t intentionally mislead them just squeeze out some more productivity. The short term benefits may be good, but it comes at the expense of long term harm; emotionally blunting people to the pleasures of work.

Thank you for reading everyone. Have a happy new year and look forward to seeing you all in 2021.

Execution beats luck, Consistency beats intensity, Curiosity beats smart, Kind beats clever, Together beats alone -Shane Parrish

Previously published at https://uxdesign.cc/a-product-managers-reflections-for-a-better-2021-8a7eb7f7887e