Principles that Help me Make better Decisions about My product
Each product manager I have worked with has some mental models that aid him in making better decisions. As a product manager, I have applied some of the well known principles to my day-to-day work to boost my problem solving skills and become a better product manager
- Thinking grey : It is very common for us to form decisions in absolute terms, i.e. either yes or no. However, it is our duty as product managers not to come to any definitive decisions before we have heard both sides of the story. Having this ability allows us to make better decisions as compared to our peers, who don’t always have access to all the data or facts. By delaying the decision-making process, we avoid confirmation bias, which could negatively affect the development of the feature. It is imperative to be a devil’s advocate of your product before committing to any major decisions. This is so that you may identify what might break if you make the wrong decision.
2. Proximate cause vs root cause : It is important to distinguish between proximate and root causes when analysing what might have caused an issue in your product. Solving a proximate cause may solve the problem in the short-term or for a specific condition, but solving a root cause will completely eliminate the problem. When you are trying to find the root cause of any issue, the “5 whys” framework comes in handy since it forces you to dig deeper into the cause.
3. Tyranny of small decisions : You should be mindful of the impact of small decisions on the quality of your product as a product manager. You cannot improve your product’s performance by building and implementing a large feature. You should focus on the small decisions that will have a significant impact in the long run on the product. A large decision or feature takes longer to implement and is often dropped when the effort and the impact can’t be measured in the short run. Despite their importance, they are often not given priority since no one wants to occupy their bandwidth with large projects. The product should therefore be built with a series of small decisions that are easy to measure and implement.
4. Beware of the externalities : In terms of how your product behaves, you can only control a certain part of it. However, you should keep an eye out for any external conditions or changes that might impact the product over which you have little or no control. For example, COVID 19 triggered a series of global lockdowns that adversely affected the travel industry. Although they could improve their product performance, they could not increase the number of transactions since they are influenced by external factors outside their control. Sometimes there is a spillover effect, in which a change made to one part of a product can negatively affect the other part. Here’s where regression testing comes into play, so you can reduce spillover impacts before releasing the feature or change.
