PM traps to avoid - 2

 I have worked as a product manager for the past three years. If you've read books about product management but have never worked as a PM, you have a rosy picture of what a PM does. 

So I wanted to share a few traps that await you when you become a PM and how you can avoid them. 

You can read the first one - Don't be a warm body.  This post is about the second one. 

2. Don't buy into the hype machine

Your exec team have an idea. It fits with the strengths of the company. If this idea is successful, then your company will be wildly successful. They start selling this idea even before vetting it. They make plans about it. They talk about it in the all hands meeting. They bring you in as the PM for the product. 

You buy in to the idea and focus on building the product and getting it out to the market as soon as possible. 

You speak to your engineering team and they tell you it will take a long time to build. Given the hype inside the company, you don't find it difficult to get resources for the build. 

You speak to prospective customers and who appear super excited. If you ask for concrete committments everyone asks you to get back once the product is ready. After a long build time the product is now ready. You go back to the prospective customers who have expressed interest before. Now they are a little bit cool. They say the idea is good but it is lower in their list of priorities. One customer who helped you spec out the product says that the way you've built it is incompatiable. They ask for many changes to the product before they can integrate it. Now you realize that none of the prospecitve customers want to use the product. 

You wonder how can a product which is the future of a company fail so bad? 

Here what happened is that you've failed to test if the idea you have is solving a real problem? 

You allowed a costly build to happen without knowing if the product is useful. 

Understand that it is the PMs job to cut the hype and identify the hits from the duds. 

How to avoid this trap? 

• It is the job of the exec team and sales team to be rosy about prospects of the products and product ideas. 
• You as the PM should test the ideas as cheaply as possible to make a product usable, feasible and viable. 
• When faced with such a situation, you should speak with your customers. Use the Mom Test to understand if the problem you are solving is real
• Get concrete committments from interesting customers to understand the viability of the product. 
• If you are not able to get committments, it could be because of two reasons. First reason being it is not a real problem. Second reason they need to see the product to see the value. 
• If it is the first then  communicate it and help the company pivot to some other product. 
• If it is the second then use the testing strategies like mockups, static demos etc to test it out further. 
• Try a Debate meeting - Kim Scott in her Radical Candor book talks about Big Debate meetings. You can schedule one big debate meeting to discuss your concerns about what are the different ways in which it can fail and why it is not a great idea. That way you can easily persuade others that it is not an idea that is meant to be persued. 

Understand that it is the PMs job to cut the hype and identify the hits from the duds. 

PM Traps to Avoid - 1

I have worked as a product manager for the past three years. If you've read books about product management but have never worked as a PM, you have a rosy picture of what a PM does. 

So I wanted to share a few traps that await you when you become a PM and how you can avoid them. 

1. Don't be a warm body 

When you join a team as a PM, especially in the initial stages, you can't choose your product. Your seniors assigns a product for you. Once you come upto speed, you notice that the prodcut doesn't make sense. Or atleast it is not the best use of your time and company resources. 

How can this happen?  - 

A company gets started with a single revenue generating product. They achieve product-market fit with that product. They start selling the product and hire hoping the good times continue. Then they do well and sature the market for that product. Now the company wants to build new products to keep growing and sustain their valuations. For that they do some brainstorming, listen to customers, think of the market to come up with new products. 

They confirm it with a few customers and they respond well. They get a product built and deliver to this customer. They are able to sell this product to a few customers but they can't grow it anymore. This gets assigned to a new PM, you. 

You realize this is not a good product or not a product that can grow. Here I'm not talking about product trying to solve a real problem but doesn't solve it completely. Here I'm talking about products you know there is no market. i.e. you are not solving anybody's problem. 

Ultimately, it is your job as the  PM of the product to own it. The sooner you can raise the alarm about this, the faster the company can pivot.

But the director has this product in his portfolio and he needs someone to continue building it. You speak to him and tell what you think. You suggest some new products to grow that business. Those are risky ideas but if they succeed there is a chance to grow the business. They need bigger budget. All valid reasons for why we cannot work on those new ideas. But since he has a budget to spend,   it compels you to work on ideas which you know don't amount to much. 

What can you do when you find yourself in this trap? 

• Once you realize this is a dead product, you owe it to speak the truth to power. 
• Create a deck or a document detailing your analysis and recommendations. 
• Tell them what outcomes you can expect if you continue in the same path. 
• Generate alternative ideas which you can persue/test out to meet the same objectives.
• Speak to other internal teams to get their reading of the situation. 
• Include bytes from customers and internal folks about the situation. 
• Use formal and informal forums to talk about what you found. 
• Your goal is to get everyone to acknowledge the situation. Then drive towards making a change to the next promising idea. 

Lots of times, everyone is busy to notice this. Ultimately, it is your job as the  PM of the product to own it. The sooner you can raise the alarm about this, the faster the company can pivot. 

Next, I will speak about how to the avoid the second trap - buying into the hype machine

What I learnt from my effective PM colleagues

I always wanted to build products and scale the impact I was having. So when I got an opportunity to work as a product manager, I jumped at it. As I was new to the PM world, I read some books to understand what that role entails and how to do the work.

But there are somethings that can't be learnt from books. I got a chance to work alongside some great PMs whose effortless way to get things done blew me away. I decided to learn as much as I can from those colleagues. I'm super thankful to have had the chance to work with them and learn from them.

I wanted to list the things I learnt in no particular order.

• Be proactive in approaching people and building relationships. - Even when they were new, they took the time to understand who can help, setup a meeting with them and introduce themselves. 
• Keep people updated, give and take help - Since they had built the relationship if they had any question about something, they didn't hesitate to reach out and ask for help. In the same vein if there was something they could help with, they would take the time to help with anything that they could help with.  
• Do the hard work to form an opinion and then express the opinion to rapidly test it and solidify it. - They take the time to understand the problem they are trying to solve, think about it from various angles and form an opinion. Then they would express the opinions any chance they get so that they can clarify and improve it rapidly. 
• Stay organized - They take the time to keep everything organized so they don't need to hunt for things when they need share or work on something. 
• Externalize your knowledge in writing and visuals to bring everyone to the same page - They would find ways to write out their opinions. As you know writing is a way to clarify your thinking. Another bonus is if you can draw simple diagrams showing all the parts of the system, that would help improve your thinking and also help explain things to people and bring everyone to the same page. 
• Always look out for opportunities to evangelize the products we are building. Use it to motivate the team and brag about the impact. - They always kept the vision and impact of the products they are building in mind. So they would also bring it in to anywhere required to motivate and also subtly brag about their and their teams impact. 
• Gently prod people to set high expectations - When someone suggests an unmotivated solution or a leisurely timeline, they would gently remind them about their effectiveness and help them set a lofty goal. 
• Co-create things with your team - To effectively work with others, they would start a draft and then use that to facilitate the discussion, all the while updating it live as others give their opinions and suggestions. This will both make everyone feel valued and help capture all the notes without wasting time later. 
• Keep the sales and account management team close. It helps to know the pulse of your products and helps you sell it better. - They worked closely with the sales and account management team to identify the beta customers, understand which customers would like the product, what possible impediments might be there in adoption etc which helps to keep the product moving smoothly from inception to launch.