The More Clueless, The Better

I believe it’s common to feel at your weakest when you don’t know something. At least for me, it is. It’s just something about not knowing that makes you feel at your most vulnerable. When I enrolled in Michael McKisson’s product development course this semester, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had very little journalistic experience and on top of that no product development experience.

Despite the discomfort, being clueless has shown me I have a greater advantage.

This class has given me the opportunity to listen to very insightful guest speakers and read impactful material. One specific class session that resonated the most with me was Heather Hiscox’s visit. Hiscox is a co-founder and director of Social Impact Programs at Moves the Needle. Moves the Needle is an innovative non-profit that works towards motivating organizations to find ways to make their customers feel valued.

Hiscox elaborated on the unknowns of a demographic. While there are things we are aware of, there are things we aren’t aware of as well. She then had the class work on a group project where we split into three teams and were told to focus on the knowns and unknowns of a specific demographic’s desires.

The teams wrote both the knowns and unknowns on sticky notes and collectively stuck them to a big piece of white paper with the demographic’s name.

We focused on common interests and complaints, and what stemmed from there was a whole bunch of undiscovered information. We may know that someone is interested in something, but we may not know why or what they do to stay connected with that interest. We may know people want news, but we don’t know how much they’re willing to pay (or not pay) for it or where they prefer to get it. Not knowing these things can make a person feel lost, but that can be turned around. Instead of feeling inferior to the unknowns, we can take that opportunity to explore and dig deeper into our research.

Before this class, for a homework assignment, we read “Your Product Manager Super Power: Not Knowing Everything” by Rik Higman. In this blog post, Higman says, “The power of not knowing everything is that it enables you to ask questions and challenge assumptions”. If we knew everything, we wouldn’t bother gaining more knowledge and developing ideas. Knowledge is power, but it’s the process of obtaining this knowledge that makes us all the more powerful.

I still continue to wander around this course somewhat cluelessly, confusion and unknowns surrounding me constantly, but now there’s a lingering excitement and strength in knowing I have what it takes to know more. Thanks for letting me know this, Heather Hiscox and Rik Higman.