How One Neil Gaiman Quote Can Help you as a Product Manager
April 1, 2017 by Paul Lopushinsky
Have you read or watched the works of Neil Gaiman?
I’m a big fan of his work. I look forward to the American Gods TV adaptation, and The Sandman Graphic novel series is an incredible read that I highly recommend.
I came across Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing, and rule Number 5 stuck out to me.
Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
Now, in the context of the above quote, he’s making reference to writing, but this can be applied to product management. With this one statement, he’s said what I’ve been writing about these last few weeks, in a far better and concise form.
So, when users tell you something is wrong, or that a feature is missing, or that your product is too complex, they’re most likely right. However, when it comes to users telling you what they think the solution should be, they are almost always wrong.
It’s your job to figure out the solution, and not the customers. Your solution to the problem might be something that they never would have come up with, like the Walkman from Sony. The Walkman did NOT come as a result of asking people for a solution, but asking and observing the problems that customers were having.
I hate to use the quote again, but:
‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’
Henry Ford (who may or may not have said this)
I want to revisit an article that I heavily quoted in the past from Ken Norton, How to Listen to Your Customers.
Take a look at what Ken Norton has to say about the issue with listening to early adopters of your product:
Also, power users rarely describe a problem, they usually ask for a specific solution. Since they understand the product so well, they prefer to speak in features, which can mask the underlying problem.
…But if you dug deeper, you might learn that their asking for this because there’s a serious usability problem with the feature in question, and hiding it is the best way they can think of to avoid being pestered by confused co-workers. In this case, you’d be better off fixing the underlying problem than delivering the feature your early adopter asked for.
Looking back at what Neil Gaiman said, listening to these solutions that are offered can lead your product astray. Firstly, you don’t understand the underlying problem, as the early adopters will likely tell you all about the solutions instead. In that case, when it comes to solutions they are almost always wrong. Sure, the solution may be right for them, but it does NOT address the underlying problem that will keep future customers at bay.
So, once again, when a user tells you that there is a problem, or that something is wrong, LISTEN. However, when it comes to breaking down what they think the solution is in their eyes, tread lightly.
This may be the solution that works for them, but not for everyone else. If you try to implement their suggestion, you may find it works for them, but for hundreds or thousands of others, it doesn’t work, or worse, make things worse than before.
I wonder how many companies throughout the years ended up with failing products as a result of listening to solutions, and not addressing the problems.
Originally published at www.pmpaul.com on April 1, 2017.
