3 lessons from an amateur sculptor turned product manager

Vincent Lindon as Rodin (2017)

Ever since I was a kid, I really loved miniature models. I first started by painting, a lot. As I grew up, I wanted to unleash my potential: painting miniatures can only get you so far, as far as creating new things is concerned. So I started sculpting things (or modeling, to be precise). A whole new world opened to me.

You might be wondering what all of this has to do with product management? Stay with me. I promise there’s a connection: on a cold Sunday night, as I was finishing my late night run, going back home in the streets of Shanghai, I finally connected the dots of my personal hobby and career choice. Why had I aspired to be a product manager in the first place? And how did my sculpting experience shape my approach to product management?

Below are 3 lessons I learned from being a sculptor. It helped me successfully to get into product management and product planning in the automotive industry, an industry as complex as it can get, working for both a car manufacturer and a supplier. Among other projects, I contributed to the renewal of Citroen as a “Feel Good” brand, worked on the “i-Cockpit” project for Peugeot in China, and more recently, a connected car infotainment system for Telenav, also in China.

The overall structure is everything

Picture courtesy of Cyril Roquelaine, who’s always been an inspiration, and from whom I’ve learned so much.

If the structure is wrong, all the time and efforts spent on the details are wasted.

I often notice that, during brainstorming or early discussions about a new feature or product, people really like to dive into tiny details — either because they think it is a cool detail or because they want to dismiss it. And while the details are necessary, we must be very careful.

The two main takeaways about structure in sculpture, that are equally true for product management:

1. If the structure is wrong, all the time and efforts spent on the details are wasted,
2. Your structure and framework need to be flexible enough, so things can be rearranged or discarded.

Without diving too much into details, when modeling, we often start with a framework made from iron wire, on top of which we add clay. Now, two things can happen:

• First scenario: my iron wire framework can be unshakable, I will start modeling things on top of it, going into details, and all of a sudden realize that it did not end up as I wanted (or worse: it did, but my concept was not good)
• Second scenario: I keep things flexible, my framework is smart (for example, arms and head detached from the body) and I can move the different articulations, change the pose, only to finally dive into more details when 80% of the final render is right.

It seems like the second scenario is common sense, but how many times do we fail to do that because we are too excited to start getting things done? Did you notice how the above picture does not have arms, how rough the cape is, and how the face has some more rough details compare to the rest (being the focus point of the whole piece)?

That’s about enough details to get some informed ideas about how things are going to turn. See the result below for yourself:

The goblin has grown arms, got a stick, a hat, fur on the cap, and many accessories and detailed work on the drape, …. (based on a concept by Wayne England)

Whether it’s a feature, product, company — you name it, it is vital to think about the whole before thinking about the details.

How is this great feature you are thinking about fitting into your product? How is your new product line fitting into overall the company line up? Will the architecture of your product be flexible enough so that, along the way, you can adjust it as necessary? Can you validate a concept at its rough stage?

Look from every angle

Just like product and designs, we need to look at a sculpture from every angle when working on it, it is as true for the structure as it is for the details. It can be more or less easy: for a small sculpture, which can fit in the hand, we just need to move it around in our hands. At bigger scale, we may need to move around the model.

The reason for doing so is really simple, and I will use a common mistake from sculptors: when modeling a face, we can’t only look at it from the front, and also not only from the profile. Some people do focus on the front view only, but more people also consider the profile. These two angles might seem obvious, but that’s not all. Many volumes will only appear by looking at them from above or below: is one cheekbone misaligned with the other? Are both eyeballs as deep into the skull as each other? (I challenge you to find pictures of faces from these angles on the internet. This is really not a common way to look at someone.) If not, correcting these mistakes that can only be seen from above may involve a lot of effort, sweat and regrets — trust me on this.

Of course, you could display a bust in public with these issues. Maybe you did not see them or you want to hide them to save yourself the aforementioned efforts. They may not be noticed under some lighting conditions. But change the context and people will notice it.

Don’t build a product which is pretty from one angle, but ugly from any other angle: take the feature in your hands, make it rotate, change the lighting, zoom in and out.

So, be sure to ask yourself: what are the different use cases for this or that feature? Does it make sense from my company’s different departments perspectives? Is it a dumb feature hidden behind a pretty facade? Am I taking risks trying to hide some bugs? Etc…

Nothing is wasted

To switch to the positive side of things — so much worries from the previous 2 lessons! — almost nothing you do in sculpting is ever wasted. Apart from the obvious “learning from our mistakes”, I am now used to keeping notes and tracking what I did.

Maybe this great pose I was thinking about wasn’t suitable for this project, but might suit another? Having 20 accessories was definitely too much for that ascetic monk sculpture project but be about just perfect for my next post-apocalyptic traveler miniature? And how about taking the head of this sculpture and totally change his body?

Even in “failures”, some parts may stand out and be kept as ideas in the future.

I believe the same thing happens in product management. Either from design or interaction concepts that did not made it this time due to a lack of development resources or even an idea that was too early to fit the market but that you may remember after seeing some news or change in the market. It is more than ever relevant to keep notes of your thoughts process, ideas, progress and failures.

If you liked this article, please note that a second one is in the making, about the preparation work necessary to be a successful sculptor, and how it applies to product management.

I hope I have provided a new and different perspective on some aspects of the role of the PM…or maybe enticed you to start a new career in sculpting?

If you like what you read, make sure to 👏, it means the world to a new writer.

And feel free to share your own experiences: what’s your hobby? On hindsight, did it made you a better PM/designer/coder? What unique or unusual perspective did it bring you?