The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Finding Perfection in an Agile World — PM Style

By Ronit Markovitz

Nine years ago and fresh out of university, I started my first job as a product manager (PM) in an innovative, nimble start-up company. Our staff was comprised of the CEO, CTO and me.
On my first day, as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed PM, I asked the CEO, “What does it take to become a ‘perfect’ PM?”
His answer was simple: “Ronit, I can’t teach you how, but whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you’re right.”
What does that mean? He could have just said, “The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42,” and that would do. Instead, I got Jedi mind tricked.

Why was I so curious to know? As a perfectionist, I was hoping to be the best PM I could possibly be — impress the team and build great, innovative products. So I was looking for a blueprint.
Wasn’t there simple “point A to point B” guidance for the “perfect PM,” so I could precisely follow its rules?

As is the case, I quickly came to understand that my days as a student were over — no more labs and well-defined processes, no more problems that were solved by Fourie, Bernoulli or Newton.
Now in the real world, I needed to recognize problems and solve them.

For the perfectionists out there who believe that “good enough” is a dirty phrase, this article is for you.
I invite you to pop this notion of a “perfect PM” bubble and learn how to solve problems in an Agile world without a safety net.
Before we do that, let me try to define the “perfect PM” playbook.

The “Perfect PM” playbook:

• Follow the market trends but also come up with original and novel innovative ideas.
• Tune in to your customers. Don’t forget to log every insight and prioritize them in your backlog.
• Know both your product’s buyers and users; they have different needs.
• Understand and align with your company’s strategy. If it’s not aligned with the market, check it and prove it to management.
• Thoroughly investigate your competitors’ products, successes, secrets and perceptions of your company and products.
• Focus on the problem, not on the solution. Yet, know how to describe the high-level solution in detailed mockups.
• Always be available to provide R&D with the incentive for developing a feature.
• Collaborate with R&D to come up with the best solution (which can take several forms, depending on the circumstance).
• Improvise with your product — be creative and optimistic — lead without being authoritative and by all means, don’t be arrogant.
• Most important of all: Don’t forget to bring a towel!

You may be thinking that you’ve been there and/or done that. But can you really be 100% on top of these things at all times?
Let’s pop some bubbles…

There is no such thing as perfect

As a perfectionist, it’s difficult for me to acknowledge that there is no such thing as a perfect PM. You probably know some amazing, top-notch PMs — but they are not perfect, and they don’t create perfect products. Think about the first iPhone. Would Apple even exist today if it had been a perfect version?

The imperfection of a product leads to improvements, creativity, better features and basically keeps the product alive and its heart beating.
While we should never intentionally ship flawed products and features, often getting something out into the market with room for growth and collecting feedback from the field accomplishes many goals in the shorter term and avoids over analysis.

Perfect is subjective

The PM works with many key stakeholders: R&D, Marketing, Sales, Management — and each has unique goals and different views and perceptions of what “perfect” means.
For example, an R&D Group Manager’s goal is to deliver the first product release on time, based on the requirements. The PM’s goal is to deliver a product that is valuable to customers, which, in turn, generates sales and increases the company’s revenue.
The R&D Group Manager can test the perfection of their goal when the first version of a product is released.
The PM can test the perfection once the product has been out for a couple of months by analyzing user engagement and adoption.

Agility is the dance between flexibility and perfection

Something happened in my career about five years ago: I learned about a new development approach that enlightened me — Agile Software Development.
You can release an imperfect product to market. You then improve and refine the solution, while you continue enhancing the product at the same time the customers are using it.
To be honest, I wasn’t convinced at the beginning. How could I be okay with signing off on an imperfect product that’s delivered in chunks? I wondered how I would remain competitive when I was releasing a less-than-perfect product to market. I mulled over what customer insights I could capture and what I should place in the backlog first. Wouldn’t customers hate this?

However, the basics of Agile make it so that your product plan is adaptive based on customer feedback and telemetry data, along with market and team insights. Within Agile, the development team works in small deliverables. This leads to fewer errors and continuous improvement and encourages flexible and nimble responses to change.
To understand how to be more Agile, I would like to share some tips with you.

“Don’t panic” — Practical Agile Tips

Be Agile with your product

There is no right solution to the market problem you are aiming to solve. We can start with one solution, prioritize it over the others and then recalculate, redesign and choose another solution. It takes a good PM not to “hang on” to their features blindly. It’s okay to lose some along the way.
Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.
Moreover, it takes a really good PM to back off a feature that doesn’t fit the market’s requirements. If you don’t do this, you’ll lose the market as it evolves (along with the requirements, needs and expectations of both buyers and users). Agility leads to a constant flow of reality checks, which in turn leads to a better product in the market. If you insist on perfection — leave perfect for later when you focus on the bits and bytes of the product, when it reaches a more mature level in its lifecycle — then you can finetune, rejuvenate and improve.

Be Agile with your colleagues

Whether you are reviewing a specific feature with R&D or addressing customer feedback with Sales, remember that everyone has different perspectives, goals and priorities. You need to learn to be flexible about the way you approach your individual colleagues. Be prepared, gather facts, learn from others and be humble. Put your ego aside — be open to considering opinions that are the opposite of yours. Even in a healthy working environment, conflicts occur. Having a healthy amount of friction is natural. Don’t hesitate to enter into a heated debate and be open to other opinions. People matter more than features. What can be perfect is how you work with others, keeping everyone involved and engaged.

Most important of all, be Agile with yourself

How many times have you started writing a specification document and felt unsure about the content or structure? Agile means just getting this done, checking the box and being unafraid to fail. By nature, perfectionists tend to procrastinate because they’re aiming for this “perfect” singular point that doesn’t really exist. As there is no such thing as perfect, there is no such thing as failure. That’s what MVPs (Minimal Viable Products) are all about. Ship the MVP; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
You’ve completed something — embrace your small achievements. This will give you the drive and optimistic energy that you need to become your product’s leader and best advocate.

Being Agile with yourself helps you become an enlightened perfectionist. Maybe not the perfect PM, but definitely the best version of YOURSELF as a PM.

That’s it. That’s all there is.

To conclude, there is no correct answer to the question I asked the CEO nine years ago: “What does it take to become a ’perfect’ PM?”
There is no perfect PM.

While I know that being perfect is unrealistic, it is still very important to aim high, care about the outcome, be thorough and thrive for the success of your product, your company and yourself.
It’s hard to succeed without being Agile in all aspects of life. Every task, conversation, product release or personal interaction represents a different domain in your dynamic life. Most of the time, they bump into each other and prevent you from being 100% in each one of them.
That’s fine. Accept that. Be Agile with yourself.

Nine years later, I understand my own question, and I am well on my path to becoming my version of a perfect PM.