The Persistent Pragmatic: The Science of Sailing and Product Management Part II — Being First Only Counts if You Are Also the Best.
The autumn sail racing season is upon us and it is time to don our BR1 suits and lee ho in the pouring rain. I published an article last year on the many things product managers can learn from racing sail boats and our first race of the season inspired me to revisit these words of wisdom and share them again in more manageable chunks.
It’s pretty short one this week but it contains one of the most important lessons.
This is the second of a six part series so look out for part three next week! Read Part I HERE.
Hello and welcome to the Persistent Pragmatic. Where we discuss all things product management, product marketing, and the pragmatic marketing framework. And sailing. Apparently.
Why Sailing?
(Read last week’s article already? You can skip this contexty bit.)
I saw a sign put up in our local pub. It said “Join us for RYA Push the Boat Out Day”
It was our local boat club advertising an open day for people in the community to come down to the club, see what sailing is all about, and go out on a sailboat on the Thames with one of the members.
So we went.
And we were hooked.
The club had races twice a week and it so happened that the skipper we went out with that first day loved to race and lacked crew.
We didn’t need to be press ganged if it meant going sailing.
I’ve been on several boats with several skippers since and we finally took the plunge and got ourselves a derelict 20 footer. We are still learning to sail on our own but love going out on other boats to race.
Racing a sailboat is MUCH different than just going out for a sail and I have learned many lessons watching my skippers and crewmates that have helped me grow both as a product manager and a head of products.
Being First Over the Line Doesn’t Mean You Win
This is probably one of the strangest things you will have to explain to someone who doesn’t race sailboats. You can have an awesome race, do everything right, hit the finish mark an hour ahead of everyone else and you still come 5th.
Being first over the line is a great feeling, don’t get me wrong, and it is always a little defeating when someone who was five boats behind you takes the cup. This is due to the fact that, in sailing, there are handicaps. These have to do with the size, weight, and sometimes sail area of your boat, even the experience level of the crew. In the sort of racing we do, all the boats in the race are different so adding time to some boats and taking time off others makes the race fairer.
The thing about handicaps in sailing is that they are a bit of a dark art. Depending on where you race it will be a bit different and it is really difficult to know where the competition sits during a race. We don’t put a list of boats in the race with their respective handicaps up on deck so we can check where we will come in while we are racing. We just concentrate on sailing the best race we can in our particular boat with its particular advantages and limitations. Smaller, lighter, more agile boats with more experienced crews might get over the line before us but we still get the cup. (in your face more competent people! mmmwaaa-hahahaha. What does this rope do again?)
Concentrate on sailing the best race YOU can with the knowledge and assets you HAVE.
The Take Away
The take away for product managers here? Getting to market quickly is important, but so is getting the right thing to market. If you deliver something ahead of your competition it is a great feeling. If it is something that no one wants or is priced, marketed, or positioned poorly, your competition is going to benefit by learning from those mistakes and getting the right thing over the line before you have time to pivot.
Are you feeling all at sea with your product? Not sure what tack to take getting your product to market? Not sure if what you’ve got is sea worth? I can help you assess your market and operational readiness. I have over 17 years of product management and development experience. Get in touch on the ol’ linked in.
Being aware of your competition is definitely something every good product manager needs to do. But it’s better to concentrate on running your best race with the resources and data you have. Getting there first isn’t a guaranteed win if you haven’t done the good work required to build the right thing for the right people and put the right price on it.
We’ve been beaten by plenty of boats smaller than ours who had fewer crew. This is a great encouragement, or perhaps a stern warning, because the size of your business (or boat) does not automatically lead to success.
Sailing is a complex science. One that involves a lot of forces that are in play all at once. Understanding and harnessing them all together to drive you forward is hard. It might not get any easier, but you definitely CAN get better at it. Persist and persevere and you will be winning in no time.
