Do you remember being in school, and teachers reassuring the classroom that “There’s no such thing as a stupid question”? This started becoming a popular phrase as teachers are the vanguard evangelizers of children’s quests for knowledge. It’s their job to inform and educate, and it’s hard to do that when they’re looking at a room full of children who have nothing to say. When kids in school, and by extension most people, know that they’re potentially subject to ridicule for asking a question or raising their voice, then it ends up silencing conversations.
That mentality can be paralleled to handling the “stupid” or “bad” ideas product teams often face. We never want to put ourselves in a position where teams have nothing to say, and don’t want to share their thoughts with us. Everyone around us is a well of information.
So what can we do when a bad idea comes in?
The same thing a teacher does when a stupid question gets asked: Give a smart answer.
Educating the person who was vulnerable enough to offer up an idea is a great way forward, and can help ensure that you’re not suffocating that potential idea bank in the future.
Most of the ideas we categorize as “bad” are ones that we don’t pursue, and we know why we won’t pursue them — but it’s important that we educate the suggester, so they can be more productive in the future.
Typically, the suggestions left behind can be boiled down to two major factors:
1. Timing is everything: The idea was brought up at a bad time in the roadmap. Conflicting with other priorities or not addressing a visible need.
2. Be objective: The idea does not align with overall objectives or ethos of the product.
Timing is everything
A way to overcome poor timing, is to open your roadmap up to the team. Let them know the target dates you’re working toward and when possible explain the rationale behind the designated times.
Sometimes, people just want to be heard and feel helpful to the product whenever that can happen. It just so happened they had the idea they raised today but they’re fine with you acting on it well after tomorrow. For this scenario, open up your backlog to folks. Let them know what’s coming up next, and maybe their idea is already being addressed via another solution. If it’s not, welcome people to contribute their thoughts on cards while communicating that this is an area that is in-actionable until fully scoped out.
Or, have a dedicated area/board to collecting feature requests.
Be objective
It is irresponsible for product managers to accept ideas just because they are cool or flashy. Even if the competition is doing it.
Product people are the protectors of the product’s direction and differentiation within the market. It’s easy to get sidetracked when there are so many exciting features on the market that could work within the space you’re building. It’s imperative that product managers consistently preach the objectives of the product, this will keep the team both informed and aligned. The more vocal product leaders are on these goals, the more people will hear them, and the more suggestions will start to align with what you’re seeking to accomplish. Keeping the conversation alive and loud, helps to give it structure and guidance for more productive outputs and conversations.
In short, there is such a thing as bad ideas. The environment outside of product management has been exemplary of that. It’s a product manager’s job to take a non-constructive suggestion and inform the team on why something isn’t going to be pursued. Sometimes you just have to say “No” to ideas. “No” is a powerful card, always let them know why you’re pulling it.
The more people know, the more they can be helpful if that’s truly what they want to be. The last thing any product manger wants, is to have a room full of people with nothing to say because their idea was ridiculed or shut down without explanation. We’re all on the same quest for knowledge, and within product teams we should all be seeking to succeed in the same goals.
The teachers we remember fondly are the ones that didn’t just teach us, they educated us. They elevated our thinking. Product Managers should strive to do the same for their teams.
