2005
Having finally completed my degree, before my first foray into the working world, a good friend, Mark and I decided to travel to Australia. We had big plans.
A few years prior, a mutual friend, Brett had emigrated with his family to Sydney, so this was the perfect opportunity to meet up, and to travel the length of the country (or is it continent?).
Our plans included all the sights and sounds one dreams of. Sydney, with the opera house and idyllic beaches, and Cairns with the Great Barrier Reef. Add to that short stops on the Gold Coast, and Byron Bay, and we were on track for the most “epic” holiday ever.
Since we were flying Singapore Airlines, we also had the opportunity to stop in Singapore for a day.
While at the time, this was just a holiday, years later I realized within my career there was so much I drew from the trip that enables me to be a better product manager.
Customer delight
We boarded our flight in Johannesburg (where I was based at the time), and experienced first hand what customer delight was. From the moment we stepped onto the plane, we were welcomed with smiles and courtesy.
Once seated, we were greeted, for the first time ever, with our own entertainment system. This was my first encounter on a flight with this option, and we excitedly started scrolling through the various movies available for viewing for the long flight.
The entire flight was an absolute pleasure. Before we knew it, we had landed, and the usual trauma of a long distance flight was avoided.
Our stay in Singapore, while short, was a perfect introduction to a first world country where cleanliness, and customer service is a priority.
By doing the simple things right, and continuously focusing on these small but important strengths, Singapore, and Singapore Airlines, taught me the importance of customer delight. Now, 15 years after that trip, I still recommend Singapore Airlines, proving the strength and impact of a great product and good customer service.
Seeing the wood for the trees
We arrived in Sydney, jet-lagged but excited. After a day of getting over our time zone hangover, our holiday kicked off!
We did the Bondi to Bronte walk, we sat on the beach and we enjoyed some Yumi’s smoked trout mousse. Of course we also did the obligatory visit to the Sydney Opera House.
It was about this time, we started a running joke about camouflage. Although we were not dads at the time, these jokes were the perfect introduction to what our lives would be a few years down the line.
Any camouflage print we encountered was treated as if we couldn’t see it. During one occasion, we were looking for a parking spot, and saw a massive camouflage print Jeep in a parking bay. The driver (who wasn’t in on the joke), commented how there was nowhere to park. We of course insisted there was a vacant spot right in front of us.
This joke extended to seeing a camouflage bikini on a hanger in a store, and without skipping a beat, someone commented “expensive hanger”.
The guide on our walking rain forest tour in Cairns, explained how a massive tree we were seeing, was covered in lichen, a type of organism that grows on trees, and is what gives rise to the general understanding of camouflage. Brett (although Mark always insists that I misattribute this) straight away jumped in and quipped, “what tree?”.
Many years later, we still reminisce about how silly we were, and how hilarious some of these encounters were.
Although this may be the case, reflecting on this now, I can see how, often as a product manager, we miss what is straight in front of us. We struggle to see the bigger picture, often seeing the expensive hanger, or even worse, missing an entire tree, because we fail to peel back a layer to dig deeper.
Impostor Syndrome
In preparation for our Great Barrier Reef experience, Mark and I had done a scuba diving course. We had invested a huge amount of money and time into this, so that we could be sure to be safe, while still getting the most out of our trip.
Brett had done his course a few years before, and had gone on a dive or two at the time of qualifying.
Following our initial stay in Sydney, we headed up North to Cairns, where we would be based for our diving trip.
In Cairns, we headed out on a boat to the reef, the excitement was almost overwhelming. While on this boat ride, the instructors on the boat went through the process of checking all our credentials, making sure we were qualified enough to dive, and preparing for any eventuality (I recall them counting how many of us went into the water with a clicker, so they knew not to leave us behind).
Once the administration was done, the instructors advised everyone to gather around, for an explanation on hand signals for those who needed it.
Mark and I were confident we were up to date, as we had just finished our course a few weeks prior. Brett was indeed rusty, but it was at this point that he turned to us and said “I don’t need this, I’ve got 5 years under my belt”.
Brett’s comment, in retrospect, was the other extreme to the common impostor syndrome we all often face. His confidence, perhaps misplaced at the time, taught me that just when we think we can’t do it, a little bit of self-belief and confidence can go a long way.
Continuous Improvement
Packed in our bag was the book “Down Under” by Bill Bryson. We each took turns reading chapters when the others were sleeping or busy (there were 3 bookmarks at any one time). We spent ages talking about the book, the humorous quotes we enjoyed inside and the little quirks we learned about the places we were visiting.
What we didn’t know at the time, was that we were in the process of continuous improvement. We were reading voraciously, we were learning from others what to do, and what to avoid, and we were tailoring our path following other people’s tried and tested experiences.
Every time we pivoted our plans, we were improving our path. Every time we learned what to look out for, we were able to enjoy our experience even more.
In product management, it is imperative to learn from those who have previously attempted what you are trying to do. Whether it comes from sticking to tried and tested UX norms, to simple exports to CSV, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel each time, when there is such an abundance of information out there that could save you time and effort. By relying on existing knowledge, you can instead focus on innovation.
The final 1% and customer research
It is often said that in product management, the first 99% of the task is easy. It’s closing out the last 1% that is often where the most effort is required. Whether this is training users, writing documentation, writing FAQs or troubleshooting last minute bugs, this is the most critical phase of a product or feature release.
Our trip continued to Byron Bay. We rented a caravan and stayed a night or two. We enjoyed dinner outside, and discussed how the next day we would walk to the lighthouse and then spend time on the beach.
The next day, everything went according to plan. That was until we were on the beach, when my wallet was stolen. I was lucky it was just my wallet, and not my passport, but nonetheless, it was frustrating to have to cancel and order new cards, as well as borrow cash while I waited for the replacements to arrive.
A few weeks after my return to South Africa, I got a call from the university I had attended. They had my wallet and wanted to return it to me.
Apparently, someone in Australia found my abandoned wallet (emptied of all its valuable contents), with one lone card still inside, my student card. They handed this in to the police.
The Byron Bay police then read the card, looked up the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, called the university and paid for postage.
The university, which is notorious for terrible administration, then collected the post, understood what they received and who it was to go to, and contacted me directly.
Incredible! What did I do?
Well, back then, I didn’t understand the concept of the 1%. I didn’t realize all the hard work that had gone into getting the wallet to me.
I responded: “It’s OK thanks, I have bought a new wallet, and don’t need the one you have. Please throw it away”.
Of course a corollary to this, is that if they had done their customer research (asking me if I actually needed my wallet), they would have saved on all the effort spent on achieving the first 99%.
Conclusion
Before flying back to South Africa, we enjoyed watching the New Year’s eve fireworks over Sydney harbor. We sat on a hill, reminisced about our trip, soaked up the last moments and stayed up well into the early hours of the morning.
While at the time, to me, it was just a holiday that had a perfect start, middle and ending, today, I can clearly see the specific lessons I learnt and the areas that were profoundly impacted, to mold me into the product manager I am today.
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