Don’t Become a One-Hit Wonder

Born in 1981, I came of age during the grunge era of the 90s. Green Day and Pearl Jam iron-on patches dominated my backpack, and flannel filled my closet. Whenever I hear “Jeremy”, I’m instantly transported back to those days.

But not all songs from the 90s are held in such high-esteem today.

For about a week, I started my day by turning on my Songza app and flipping to the One Hit Wonders of the 90s playlist. It is awesomely awful.

Coincidentally, a few days later, this quick conversation unfolded via Twitter between Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover), Jason Evanish (@evanish) and me (@kenromano).

So without further ado, here is my humble ode to the one-hit wonders* of the 90s and how we can use them as inspiration to not become one-hit wonder product managers.

*OK, maybe a couple had two or three hits

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

“I get knocked down, then I get up again.”

Think about some of the biggest comeback stories in recent years.

• After separating the company into DVD and Streaming businesses and seeing stock prices drop, Netflix did an about-face back to their original business plan. Reed Hastings and team made some smart moves (e.g. original programming) and gained back the respect of the industry and a healthy stock price.
• Several years ago, Facebook had a heavy hand in making MySpace irrelevant. MySpace recently relaunched with a narrower focus and a huge celebrity backer and spokesman in Justin Timberlake. Time will tell whether there’s any impact (I, for one, haven’t logged in) but there’s certainly something to be said for bouncing back with a vengeance.

It’s certainly not easy to bounce back from failure or from a mis-step. In both of the examples above, it took enormous investments to do so. But on a smaller scale - even without a blank check or enormous resources - the time comes to look in the rear-view mirror and identify whether it’s time to cut your losses, refocus and then get back up again.

(Author’s note: no, Blackberry is not an example in this article.)

Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby

“Stop. Collaborate and listen.”

Three essential words that must be in every Product Manager’s vocabulary.

• STOP: A product manager can get pulled in dozens of directions each day. It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the chaos and be completely reactive each day. But unless you stop focusing on reactive tasks and figure out ways to delegate or automate them, you’ll always have an excuse not to be proactive and deal with the hard stuff.
• COLLABORATE: Engineering…Finance…Marketing…Executives…Sales….the list of stakeholders and partners goes on and on. Particularly if you work in a large, matrix environment, it’s critical to give off a positive and collaborative energy in order to succeed.
• LISTEN: Make sure to always listen more than you talk. Ask questions. Understand the context of the person giving you the feedback. Accept the feedback (good or bad) and then respond. Don’t dominate conversation. Don’t lead people towards an answer you want.

Collective Soul - The World I Know

So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below.
And I laugh at myself
As the tears roll down.
‘Cause it’s the world I know.
It’s the world I know.

My past two product management roles have been in subject areas I knew little about. There was certainly a lot of self-consciousness, but I’ve found that while being a SME might make the learning curve a bit easier, there are pros to each side.

When you have experience in the subject area, you’ll know the industry players and the customers. You’ll probably have a solid understanding of the technology and the workflow of the product, what industry feeds to read and what all the competitors are doing.

But you might also come into the role with some pre-conceived notions. Or be a little lazy and not take the time to validate assumptions with your new customers.

Coming into a brand new industry with eyes wide open may be beneficial.

• You’ll insist on interviewing every customer.
• You’ll read every blog.
• You’ll ask basic questions. (And I mean basic.)
• You’ll challenge every time someone says “that’s just the way it’s always been done”
• And you’ll come in with a fresh perspective for the team.

Cuz it’s NOT the world you know.

Natalie Imbruglia - Torn

“There’s just so many things that I can’t touch, I’m torn.”

Blossom recently posted a great article that clearly illustrates the dilemmas that product managers face every day: do I knock off the low-hanging fruit or do I invest all my resources in something big? Do I let my largest customers dictate parts of my roadmap or do I risk pissing them off by focusing on other areas? Can I go halfsies and split my resources for both quick wins and long-term strategic goals?

In the end, you’re probably going to want to err on the side of long-term strategic goals that will keep you relevant and distinct from the competition. But that’s not to say you shouldn’t also look for opportunities to show quick iterative development and enhancements when there’s an opening in the schedule. It’s a constant struggle and the cause of much second-guessing.

Los Del Rio - Macarena

“Heeeeeeey Macarena!”

Right behind The Electric Slide, probably the most common song on the Do Not Play list of modern weddings: The Macarena.

To use a cliche, it went viral.

It was catchy, it was different, it had a dance.

To help with success, your product should kinda go viral. Not in the way that a client briefs an ad agency to “make this ad go viral” (don’t get me started on that request) but more in the sense that your product needs to provide a clear use, an intuitive interface, and a reason to make people want to come back again and again.

I use Seamless constantly because it’s just so easy, and it saves me a phone call. I use Pocket because I have long underground subway rides to work and need a way to read offline. Both provide easy interfaces and fulfill a need.

Other times, there’s just an x-factor you might not be able to predict. Why would games like Words With Friends or Draw Something - which both clearly repurposed games from our childhood - have such exponential growth? I don’t know the answer, but I do know that - after an initial spike - usage of both have significantly dropped.

So therein lies the problem and the challenge. Once you go viral, you need to figure out how to move beyond hype or a hook and maintain relevance, differentiation and a strong user experience. Otherwise, you’ll appear on the wedding Do Not Play list.