Product Management Lessons from Bill Willingham’s Fables Comics
Watching American Gods got me thinking about Bill Willingham’s Fables Comics. Both have gods and folklore characters living in modern-day America under assumed identities. Fables feature complex and evolving characters, great storytelling, and — like Game of Thrones — every character can be sidelined or killed. It also goes the extra mile and shows the terrible costs of winning wars, which can even be as dire as losing them.
#1 Forgiveness Only Accompanies Success
One of my early mentors said, “If you wait for everyone to agree, you’ll never get anything done”. Of course, cutting a few corners works only if you are proven right in the end.
#2 Ask the Right Questions
Lofty questions will get you lofty answers. Know who you're talking to, how they prefer to get their information, and how deep they want to dive into details. I once asked our team’s QA Lead: How do you feel about the [upcoming] release? I’m in love with it — he replied. Serves me right.
#3 Stakeholder Buy-in Before Commitments
Consult with the people who actually build your product on what they can deliver and when. Put a comfortable buffer on that. Grand visions are cool, but Execution is the only moat - Startup L. Jackson / Parker Thompson.
#4 The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday
You’ll be the one catching all the loose ends so the customer has a smooth experience. My heart bleeds for you.
#5 Over Communicate Even Super Obvious Things
There are few things worse than no communication. When your peers are sick of hearing it, then you have maybe managed to get the message across.
#6 Embrace the Checklist
This one is quite self-explanatory. If not, The Checklist Manifesto can help.
#7 Accept Compromise
Being CEO of the Product does not equal being the company’s CEO. Except in rare, very fortunate cases. You’ll need to build consensus and compromise more often than not.
#8 Impress Your Customers
How else will you get them to stop using another product, divert budget from another purchase or change their behavior to make room for yours? Marc Andreessen was said in an early A16Z podcast, founders sometimes forget how big the world is and how much time people have invested in other products.
Acknowledgments
- Thanks to Alexandra Cosma for reading an earlier draft.
- All images are owned by Vertigo Comics. Get this wonderful series.
- Inspired by the last image from Benedict Evan’s Not Even Wrong — Ways to Dismiss Technology, a panel from Spiderman with this conversation:
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