Top 3 Product Management Lessons from the latest Wonka Movie
Recently I watched the latest Wonka movie iMAX, I not only feel touched by the warm storyline, amazing movie graphs and endless creativity. I also felt inspired by the true zero to hero start up story of Willy Wonka and his entrepreneur spirit.
Apart from being an aspiring magician, inventor, and chocolatier, Mr Wonka is also an excellent product manager/leader, in my opinion.
These are top 3 product management lessons I learnt from the movie:
Lesson 1: Obsess over customers, not competitors
In the movie, the main competitors (Slugworth, Fickelgruber, Prodnose) try to keep their monopoly in the chocolate industry and doing everything they can to sabotage Wonka’s fast growing chocolate business.
However, Wonka has never waste any of him and his team’s energy to do anything directly at their competitors in return, he focuses on continuing to make new products and deliver them to potential customers through all channels.
Is this because he can’t do anything to get back at their competitors? Maybe, but more importantly he knows he has limited resources, energy and time, he would rather focus on what matters the most — sharing his chocolate to people who loves it/ delivering product to customers (instead of competitors).
In the end, A lovable product with high customer satisfaction and market adoption are what makes great and sustainable company
This remind me the Jeff Bazo’s famous mantra:
“Obsess over customers, not competitors “
Around the time of Amazon’s IPO in 1997, the company faced significant competition from physical bookstores, notably Barnes & Noble. This period was crucial for Amazon, as it was transitioning from a fledgling online retailer to a public company.
One of the notable competitive challenges Amazon faced was a lawsuit from Barnes & Noble in 1997(just before the IPO happening). This lawsuit was a significant event, especially just before the IPO event.
When facing the challenge, Amazon’s strategy, as characterized by Jeff Bezos, was also to focus relentlessly on the customer rather than the competitor. This customer-centric philosophy was pivotal in guiding the company’s strategies and innovations. And help Amazon eventually becomes the everything store as we know today.
Lesson 2: The power of Cross functional team
Behind every successful product , there is an united, capable and caring product team.
The core product team in this story are:
- Willy Wonka — chocolatier, Founder & CEO
- Noodle — Orphant grow up in the hotel, COO
- Abacus Crunch/ an accountant — Finance & Commercial
- Piper Benz/a plumber — Technical support
- Larry Chucklesworth/comedian, — Marketing & Channel
- Lottie Bel/telephonist — Communication Lead
In the context of making chocolate and opening a successful chocolate show, their skillset may not all consider as relevant or valuable, however, in the movie, every single one’s “irrelevant” skill sets all become very handy and prove to be valuable to the success of their mission: without Noodle’s deep understanding of the standard process and schedule of the hotel, wonka will never be able to sneak out and get his amazing chocolate to the end customers. Without Piper’s knowledge and expertise in plumbing, Wonka’s key travel paths(tunnels underneath the city) probably won’t be that smooth, without Abacus’ business skills and finance background, the team may not be able to track their earning properly and form the strategy to obtain the cartel’s incriminating account book.
As a good Product leader, the ability to discover talents and build a strong team based on their strength is integral to the success of final product success.
Lesson 3: Think Outside of the Box
In the movie, the powerful chocolate monopoly in town (Slugworth, Fickelgruber, Prodnose) collude with the Chief of Policy, they block all the regular channels for Wonka to distribute to their customers.
This is fatal for any business, however, Wonka didn’t give up, he works with his dream team and thinks outside of the box — instead of selling his chocolate through the regular venues, they come up with brand new unconventional channels and fun way to promote it— he sells it the customers in local cafes, security guard in zoo and across the streets where there is close access to the underground tunnel.
These unexpected, creative and easy access channels, in additional to his talented magic show and the value behind his chocolate product—“don’t forget your dream and get in touch with you imagination ” (This is the best marketing in my opinion), his chocolate immediately become the most well loved products in the town.
These are the top 3 Product management lessons I learn from the latest Wonka movie.
Before you go
Apart from the top 3 lessons above, I also feel inspired by some of the key characteristics in Wonka:
- Optimistic and never give up
- Empathic and Kind — Caring about his people (team) as much as his product
- Creative Problem solving and always think out of the box
- Deep craft and domain expertise
- Passionate about what he do
I believe these are very important traits for a good Product manager/leader as well.
In the end, I would like to share with you one of song from the movie that stuck in my head — Oompa Loompa. Hope you also enjoy the movie.
All the blogs are written by human (me) not GPT, hence apologies for any grammatical mistakes and feedback is welcome.
