A sparrow and the art of product management
I was walking my dog a Friday morning at a quicker pace than usual as I had an important VC meeting at 9am in Portola Valley — a good 15 miles from where I live and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t late for the meeting. As I neared my home, I saw a seemingly lifeless sparrow lying on the road. As I darted past, something caused me to stop and retrace my path. When I bent down, I noticed its beak moving just a little. At that point, I knew there was no going back. I grabbed a newspaper from a trash bin on the street, scooped up the sparrow and headed home.
My next port of call was my vet and the plan was I could hand the bird off and dash down to my meeting. No go — the vet would not touch a ‘wild bird’ and instead redirected me to ‘Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley’ a solid 30 miles in the opposite direction from my meeting. There was no going back — headed to the center, handed the bird to them and then started on my journey to Portola Valley. By that time I was already a ½ hour late and a quick message to the VC met with silence. With trepidation, I entered the Konditorei coffee shop and I saw him sitting there stony faced. My — what sounded like a cock-and-bull story — explanation was met with an arched eyebrow. We started talking and by the end of it we had hit it off. So what? Well, as I reflected over this incident, it had some uncanny parallels with what product managers’ face
- Dealing with ambiguity and making split decisions — There is no biz school course that teaches how you straddle your conscience — a limp sparrow on a wintry morning — with your objectives — getting to a VC meeting. But a decision needs to be made usually in real time
- Constantly evaluating decisions under changing market conditions — The fact that the vet refused to take the sparrow meant I had to re-evaluate my options and make another call
- Being honest with the customer — I could have cited a dead battery, kids’ ill health, and traffic for my late arrival. Instead I cited the sparrow as my reason — which while sounding incredulous — had a touch of honesty which I think is what ultimately won him over
Life got in the way and I never called back to see how the sparrow was doing (chalk one down as a failure in PM — not following up with the customer after the sale) — but being an optimist I am sure it is flying the friendly skies!
(Originally published on LinkedIn)
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