How I PM-ed my way through COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading like wildfire in India, at the time of writing this (September 1st/2nd Week), India is already clocking 90,000+ cases per day with no indication of slowing down. If you can afford to stay indoors, I would highly recommend that you continue to do so!
This is a small account of my experience dealing with the virus in August and how I was able to tap into the skills I use daily, working as a Sr. Product Manager @ HealthifyMe, to manage the situation better.
Disclaimer : Views expressed are personal. Please do not misconstrue it for any medical advice. Please talk to a doctor if you are having any symptoms.
Background
While I am based in Bangalore, I did decide to move back home to Pune, towards the end of July, as my wife was 6 months pregnant. At that point, the cases in Bangalore were on the rise and Pune was already holding a podium seat in Indian cities with the most active cases. The move was aptly described by our doctor in Bangalore as going from the frying pan into the fire!
We (my wife and I) did try to take adequate precautions to stay safe during the move. This included getting a PPE Kit for ourselves and booking a double seat on our flight home (kudos Indigo, really well done!) along with carrying the usual sanitisation paraphernalia. We landed in Pune at night, got ourselves stamped at the airport(from a common stamp-pad for all the 100+ people who landed then🤦♂) mandating a 14-day home quarantine. Two days into the quarantine, I woke up a fever and cough. Dreading the worst, I isolated myself from my wife and started to figure out how I would get myself tested.
The next morning I headed to the nearest hospital to do a Rapid-Antigen Test. I opted for this test as its results would be available in 15 minutes. If positive, as per ICMR guidelines, I would be considered to be positive. However, if I tested negative, I would give my sample in the same visit, for a more accurate RT-PCR test, which would take around 6–8 hours for the result to come through. Fortunately (?) I was saved from the ordeal of having to give my RT-PCR sample (the nose swab isn’t particularly pleasant), as I received a positive result for my antigen test within 15 minutes.
That feeling when your instinct kicks in…
Holding a positive report in your hand (or your phone) of the very same virus that’s ravaging the world isn’t exactly a swell feeling. A lot of questions start playing in your head — how do you take care of yourself? how do you ensure that no one else at home is infected? how do you go about getting them tested? who all should I inform about this? what about all that mountain of pending work? and of course, where the hell did you get this from? Fortunately, my symptoms were not too severe, but to keep a distance from the wife in her current state, I opted for an institutional quarantine setup. The hospital had tied up with a nearby business hotel and I was able to check-in there without much fuss.
Once the typical apprehensions blew over, I started to think of this situation from the point of view of a PM — clinical and non-emotional. What was this, but another problem statement to deal with and attempt to overcome? That’s when all the gears began to click in and I started thinking of myself as a “system”. What information was already available? What was important metrics to monitor over the next several days? What were the basic rules of medicine and state that needed to be followed? This automatically made the situation seem more fun. Very similar to Mark Watney in The Martian, I decided to PM the shit out of this.
These were some of the ways in which my training as a PM helped me see this through
Good Product Managers are always learning
The best part about being a PM is that you can always look to solve a user’s problems without worrying about any operating limits (this is not my domain ). You gotta learn and figure out what needs to be done to solve a problem in the best way possible. Learning a new skill or acquiring additional knowledge will not only teach you the skill but also how driven or disciplined you can be. Additionally, PMs are also expected to go deeper into their craft to learn more about their customers and about the industry. It truly is a role that requires and rewards continuous learning.
How this helped me?
Though COVID has captured the national imagination for months now, I was following most it through headlines and national statistics. The situation changed when I tested positive. At this point, I also wanted to know more about my chances! Listening to and understanding the intricacies of the condition described by some of the best minds working at it right now helped me become conversational about the various topics from why Vitamin D could be a secret weapon against COVID, to how the spread has been across the world to why I lost my sense of smell. Learning and understanding more about the disease also made me take it a lot more seriously and come up with scenarios to deal with this better.
A Product Manager must be a master communicator
Stakeholder communication is at the heart of any product manager’s day-to-day life. Mastering this is one of the most important keys to success in your role as a PM. This is not simply keeping key people apprised of progress, delays and blockers, it is also communicating & collaborating with your team to help them understand what needs to be built and why. A lot of times PMs operate as translators & evangelists between cross-functional teams keeping the same end-goal in mind, driving outcomes by consensus.
How this helped me?
I was one of the earliest people in my circle to be infected with COVID. After dealing with the initial general curiosity of well-wishers who were keen to know what it’s like over the first few days — it came down to actually figuring out how to deal with this till the end of the quarantine. Being isolated in the quarantine facility, a lot of time actually went on calls describing symptoms and figuring out prognosis with a close friend who is also a doctor. These deliberations and discussions would then be relayed to other stakeholders(my mother!) defining what needs to be done next. Some forms of information need to be broadcasted — e.g. I had to update my folks about my daily readings so as to keep anxieties at bay. Whatsapp updates worked beautifully for this.
Cadence is a PMs best friend
While the job description sounds sexy, a lot of your time as a PM goes into tactical work — especially in a growth stage startup. Enough posts have been written about how a Product Manager must balance out the strategic work with the tactical day-to-day work — but one thing that has worked for me to manage the tactical efforts is to set up a cadence around it. An article I read recently put this very beautifully, “Cadence eats Genius for breakfast”. An added benefit of this regularity is that you can often recognise if something is going down — a strong sense of anticipation is very good to have for a PM.
Cadence eats Genius for breakfast.
How this helped me?
Due to the highly infectious nature of this disease, the doctors and governments advise you to follow long periods of isolation and quarantine. Having a routine and a fixed set of things to do here helped banish the sense of monotony that accompanies the isolation period. For example, you’re required to keep a track on some key metrics like Body Temperature and Oxygen Saturation. Any movement in these metrics could be an indicator of things going south. I was recording these readings 3 times a day to keep track of my daily operations over the period of my quarantine. As you can see towards the end, my system did start to recover!
A Product Manager is an eternal optimist!
Product work at any startup has its share of ups and downs. A lot of times, things don’t go according to plan. A PM is usually someone who acts as the glue between the various teams going at a problem statement (you’ve all seen that infamous Venn Diagram!). A classic responsibility of this conduit-type role is that you are often the harbinger of unpleasant news to the wider team, but you cannot afford to let it destroy their morale! It’s your job to find that silver lining, and the best way to do it is to always be enthusiastic and excited about your problem statement.
How this helped me?
Spending 10+ days in one room can really be a very sullen experience. And to add to it, I experienced a myriad of symptoms from fever to exhaustion to a complete loss of smell. In addition to this, you have to deal with the deluge of advice from sources that are as credible as your doctors, to the tips coming out of Whatsapp University. While all this was afoot, I tried my best to keep the morale high for everyone in my corner with regular updates and conversations. These are generally uncertain times and dealing with this whilst remaining enthusiastic about your recovery helped me significantly.
In retrospect, I could have done a better job at this — by the time the realisation dawned on me, I was halfway through my quarantine.
In Conclusion…
A Good PM also needs to take a break
After spending 10+ days in institutional quarantine and another 7 days of home quarantine, I finally tested negative on the RT-PCR test — completely cured of all symptoms and back to work.
As PMs, we tend to get absorbed in what we are doing, up to crazy levels of obsession. There is always a constant urge to know what is going on at work and how you can influence it— But in a once in a lifetime pandemic situation, I am glad that I was able to disconnect and use those same skills, to help me cope with the situation at hand better.
