Dissecting Product Management
What is the key to a successful product manager?
Answer 1: An MVP that users would not hate enough to switch to an alternative.
We built MVPs for a variety of products at Stanford and later on at work. With each iteration, the product looked shoddier than the one preceding it. We got some great feedback which clarified the idea that the core user experience is enhanced by having an imperfect wrapper around it. As a PM, my job is to make sure that I capture enough of the core user experience to be compelling while not spending too much time honing the product. This is achieved practically by drawing a “happy path” flow and filling in the blanks to figure out what an MVP looks like. It is a lot harder than it sounds but that’s where a good PM gets to be distinguished. Separating the bells and the whistles from the absolute laser focused core of the experience is a skill that is easy to get wrong. There are no universally accepted right answers and there are no silver bullets. The pointer of being a demonstrable pain-killer in an easily comprehendible way is a mouthful but it is the closest to an actual guide that I had when trying to generate core benefits. It is usually 1 flow or at the max 2 flows which determine if an MVP is viable. There will obviously be problems and the signaling should be such that people know that enhancements are imminent. This builds out a feedback loop for a product that most people want to invest in. If you have ever read the “hooked” behavior model, it is a classic implementation of that.
Answer 2: Find the market that seems the most promising and hold on to it.
Markets are the biggest determinant of success. A product market fit is basically you making sure you serve the needs of a market. It is less of a fit and more of a dance. The “product” has very little say in what turns out as the end product. It is the market that determines success or failure. And as if that wasn’t hard enough, the market is always evolving. Its expanding like most of technology products. Its finding new platforms, new use cases and new reasons to call your existing product “insufficient”. It often contracts when there is a regulatory component or ceilings of scale which are physically impossible to circumvent. It shifts completely at times when there are factors at play beyond your control. The Market, quite simply put, is a fickle beast. But hold on to it. It is everything you need to succeed or you know fail. When we entered Crowd-investing in BancBox, we were committed to the market. Even if it took time to mature, we would find adjacent use cases and retain a stranglehold on the core use cases of Crowd-investing.
Answer 3: Find balance.
This is the key point here. Balance is difficult. Balance is of utmost importance. Balance is very frustrating to establish. In my own day to day job, I have to balance technical skills versus strategy. Strategy is moving further away from the mechanics of how your product works. Staying close to technical details makes you employable. Strategic vision makes you grow. Which one do you choose? How do you establish balance? It is a difficult question and one that has absolutely no right answer to. Similar questions abound in day to day work. Is it a bug or a feature? Is it an enhancement? Which customer is more important? The only route which is navigable across all of these questions is to find balance. Weigh the pros and cons. Be objective and then do what you were going to do anyway. Because even though your decision is not informed by the pros and cons and the objectivity of finding balance, the exercise of trying to see both sides lends you well to empathy which will be useful and needed before you know it.
