Snap Your Fingers
I’m not a product manager, nor have I ever been one. I’ve worked with them, sometimes quite closely. But, I have never had any experience actually doing the job. I’m starting with a disclaimer, but of course, like any developer, I have strong opinions about products. Especially so of the ones I work on. And I don’t just find myself preoccupied with the artifacts themselves. I also tend to be highly critical of the thinking and strategy going into those products.
Even though I have strong opinions, I’m not great at articulating or advocating for them. In particular, I tend to be too lazy to try to back up my gut feelings with more persuasive, data-driven arguments. I’ve known this about myself for a long time, but cannot seem to bring myself to actually do anything about it, for better or worse. But, recently, my laziness paid off in a fascinating way. I came up with (i.e., probably stole) a simple trick that really helps. I’m calling it the “Snap Your Fingers” technique.
It’s a simple sanity test for strategy. Just snap your fingers and pretend all of the work is done.
It’s Eye-Opening
At first, it sounds so simple that it might even come off as pointless. Plans have been made for months/years, people have been hired, and we’ve set them loose. But, when you are about to pretend its all done, it forces you to think about what you are about to just will into existence. Is it well-defined? Are their critical pieces no one is working on? Now, you don’t want this to give you an excuse to put the cart before the horse. You aren’t magically adding a million users, or 10x the number of paying customers. You’re just imagining completing work. The idea is to allow problems that might be in the back of your to mind come to light. And I’ve found that’s exactly what happens, almost immediately.
It’s Cheap
This exercise will take you all of thirty seconds to start. In fact, if you’re doing it on your own for a solo project, it may just take five. No major bugs, features all done. How do you feel? What do you tackle next? Are you closer to your vision? You can even boil this down further to just no major defects. I’ve found that if I imagine there are no bugs, I immediately think to myself “well, then component X is definitely going to need attention, because its in bad shape”. I bet you a dollar that you give at least one of your priorities a second thought, after just a brief time imagining them all complete.
It’s Fun
I’ve found it to be quite enjoyable to, briefly, imagine that everything is finished. Allow yourself a glimpse of the sense of accomplishment waiting for you at the end. It’s a great form of brainstorming too. Lots of opportunity for “what if” and “suppose”. It’s a great way to spark some engaging discussions with your team. You’ll almost certainly shake out some areas of disagreement. But, since you’re already pretending, it gives everyone more permission to just imagine in some creative solutions.
Give it a Shot
I’ll say again that I’m not a product manager, so I’d call this a fairly unproven approach. I’ve had fun with it, for my own work and for team projects. It’s an easy way to give your vision a little shake, to see if anything comes loose. I have a feeling it will be useful for others, but I’d still love to hear from you if it is. Snaps!
