The 4 thinking caps of successful product managers
Steve Jobs is widely recognized as one of the most successful product managers ever. But his peers often questioned what he brought to the team. In a particularly heated scene from the movie ‘Steve Jobs’, an increasingly frustrated Steve Wozniak asks his namesake, “What do you do? You’re not an engineer, you’re not a programmer, you can’t design anything. What do you actually do?” To which Jobs simply replies, “I play the orchestra”. In essence, implying that it was Jobs who kept things working smoothly.
Truth be told, every product manager could be asked the same question — what do you actually do? Hard as it is to answer that question, a product manager is undoubtedly one of the most important cogs in the wheel. A really good product manager can help the company meet its short term business goals and also help create a long term defensible position. Great product managers such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Eric Ries and Sundar Pichai are alike in how they think. The good news is that you can learn how to think like a successful product manager.
The Four Caps that every Product Manager should wear
Product thinking is difficult. We live in the Information Age and nothing rivals the power of good thinking. To claim a spot at the table of great product managers, it is imperative that you be strategic, creative and also realistic in your thinking. There are four ‘thinking caps’ that you can put on in your quest to be a more successful product manager.
Big Picture Thinking Cap
Steve Jobs once quipped, “Start small, think big. Think about not just tomorrow but also the future.” A product manager who has her big picture thinking cap on, does the following.
Learn Continually.
Good input leads to good output. It is important for every product manager to be a keen learner. Learning can enhance your product sense and sharpen your ability to identify opportunities that arise from new technologies. Fortunately, there is an abundance of articles and case studies on product management best practices. Increasingly, podcasts such as ‘Masters of Scale’, ‘How I built this’ and ‘The Product Podcast’ are becoming invaluable in improving your PM craft. Successful Product Managers learn from their successes and their failures.
Listen Intentionally.
The true test of the worthiness of your idea is how the others respond to it. In-depth discussions with the Engineering, UX, Marketing and Sales teams will help you build a more nuanced point of view. Try having as many informal discussions as possible — maybe over a cup of coffee. In my experience unstructured discussions are great at building rapport between key stakeholders. Of course, it is equally vital to spend time listening to your users. This should not be a one off exercise but rather a regular practice.
Being data driven is better than being gut driven. But being data informed and gut driven is even better. And that can only happen by building deeper customer empathy.
Look Outwards.
Great product managers are those who are able to develop a sense of where the market is headed in the mid to long term future. One of the starting points to be able to do this, is an industry and competition analysis. Here it is important that you look not just at your direct competitors, but also at companies that may live in a completely different industry.
For example, consider the case of a product manager at Amazon who is looking at ways of increasing the feature adoption for prime video. How Netflix handles the challenge would obviously be an important case study. But interesting insights could also be gleaned by studying how Spotify gets more people to engage with its podcasts.
Advantages of Big Picture Thinking
Every product manager can benefit from big picture thinking. It allows you to -
- Set the vision. Great product managers are able to define the long term vision for the product. They are able to sketch a picture of the desired goal state and any potential challenges or obstacles in the way.
- Keep the product on target. Carefully evaluating short term goals against long term targets helps to ensure that you are always building the right product for the right segment of customers.
- Get everyone to work better together. It is commonly known that a product manager can lead only by influencing. Looking at the big picture will allow you to communicate more effectively across organization and align everyone to a common goal.
Focused Thinking Cap
While donning the Big Picture Thinking cap allows you to develop a broader perspective and make long term product decisions, you need to wear your cap of Focused Thinking to work out your immediate goals. Focused thinking is characterized by an ability to -
Identify Priorities.
Having a long-term vision is important, but achieving low-hanging targets is equally essential. The product backlog can become long and unwieldy over time. So, it’s a good idea to periodically groom the backlog. You can use any of the common prioritization frameworks to plan your roadmap. One of the simplest ways is to prepare a 2x2 prioritization matrix. This plots features on a development effort versus potential customer impact axes.
Remove Distractions.
To a product manager, distractions come in the form of client or user specific feature requests. For instance, consider that you are leading a B2B product. And one of your most important clients asks for a very specific product feature. Building the feature would add definite value to the client. At times, it could be the sales team who asks you to prioritize a feature as that would help them clinch a deal. But what if this customization does not tie it with your product roadmap? How do you ensure that your product does not end up being an unmanageable mess of projects?
The best, though not easy, way is to learn to say NO. Share your product goals with key stakeholders regularly. This will help to keep the distractions to a minimum.
Set SMART Goals.
SMART acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Your product goals should have all these characteristics to help focus your efforts and maximize chances of success. SMART goal setting brings structure to your product thinking and trackability to your KPIs.
Imagine you are the product manager at Twitter, responsible for the Twitter Ads product. An example of a SMART goal would be to get small business owners across the US increase adoption of Twitter Ads by 20% in three months.
Advantages of Focused Thinking
Focused thinking can help you move the needle on the success metrics set out for your product. More specifically it can -
- Allow an idea to mature. Through internal brainstorming, customer interviews and competitive analysis, you generate a laundry list of feature ideas. But to validate an idea, you need the team to focus on a limited set of features. With dedicated bandwidth, a good idea can turn into a great idea.
- Help you define your target segment. A product that is built to serve everyone will end up serving no one. A focused strategy will help clearly identify your client base, its pain points and accordingly articulate your message. A great example of this is Superhuman, which is a mail app designed for those 1% of people who are willing to pay for a premium product that turbocharges their mailbox. Accordingly, Superhuman has seen a lot of CEOs and Founders queue up to get access to the app.
Creative Thinking Cap
As a product manager, your job is to define how the product gets built. To do this, a critical skill you can cultivate is an ability to think creatively. Being able to think of out-of-the-box solutions to customer problems can be a force multiplier. However, most product managers, especially those from a tech background, don’t consider themselves creative. The good news is that anyone can learn how to put on their creative thinking cap and bring better ideas to the table.
Learn to Value Ideas.
“Creativity doesn’t just involve imagination. It also involves motivation, organization and collaboration”, said Kaufman. A common misconception is that creative thinking equates to original thinking. Rather, most creative thinkers are able to absorb ideas from disparate sources. They build off the work of others while bringing their own unique point of view. Great ideas can come from any member of the team. Learn to value ideas and you will never lack for creativity.
Be Comfortable With Inconsistencies.
Successful product managers know that it is futile waiting for complete data. There may be inconsistencies in what you hear from your customers, sales reps and marketing teams. Explore those inconsistencies. They may lead to new product insights and innovation.
Don’t be afraid of experimenting.
To be creative, you need to be willing to experiment. It is better to launch and pivot if necessary, rather than wait until a product or feature is perfect. Reid Hoffman remarked, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” We have previously written about the power of experimenting. Cultivate a culture of product experimenting and you will always be seen to be creative.
Advantages of Creative Thinking
Product managers who put on their creative thinking cap, understand that creativity -
- Compounds over time. Maya Angelou rightly said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Make it a habit to put on your creative thinking cap. It will make you an increasingly more creative person.
- Leads to product innovation. Creative thinking can lead to breakthrough product ideas. They can also help build a defensive moat against your competition.
Shared Thinking Cap
In today’s fast-paced world, you cannot come up with good ideas all the time. Thankfully, you don’t have to. Successful product managers are more than just idea generators. They can also act as idea facilitators. By putting on your shared thinking cap you can benefit from the thought process of people around you. In the words of Steve Jobs, aim to become “the conductor of the orchestra”. One of the ways you can do this is -
Bring the Right people to the Table.
In his book titled ‘Superminds’, MIT professor Thomas Malone talks about how a group of individual minds (not necessarily brilliant) are more effective at brainstorming a solution than an individual smart person. As a product manager, you have the opportunity to call upon the experience of marketers, sales reps, customer service reps, engineers and designers. By combining the skills and perspectives of different individuals, you can make better product decisions.
However, it is not enough to merely bring different people to a common meeting. Rather, to benefit from shared thinking, understand their goals and motivations. Ask how can you help them meet their targets. Of course, you might not always be able to help. So, try to align separate goals to a common product goal. Shared thinking works best when everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Advantages of Shared Thinking
There are a couple of ways product managers can benefit from shared thinking.
- Foster collaboration. By getting cross-functional teams to brainstorm together, you will get everyone focused on a common goal. Hence, more chance of product success.
- Get approvals faster. As a product manager, you will be responsible for getting the roadmap approved with the senior leadership. This stands a better chance if you have other stakeholders speaking favorably about the product goals.
Parting Thoughts
Great product managers are always in demand. They are the ones who are able to articulate the ‘why’ behind a product design choice. And not just the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. Learning to ‘put on’ the four caps, will help you think more clearly about the why. And help you become a more successful product manager.
I hope this article was helpful. If it was, feel free to follow me on Twitter where I share thoughts and articles on product management and leadership. You can also check out my startup https://komenco.in, which is dedicated to helping products scale from zero to one.
