Small Bets Win in the Product Organization
Bar wagers have led to some remarkable innovations over the years. Some better than others. One of my favorite is the Ironman Triathlon. Another favorite is from my family’s past, when a window awning company owner thought he could beat my family member at poker. As the game advanced, so did the wager. In the end, he lost, and the winner had a set of new awnings on every single window of the bar.
The winner took all in this poker game, bar owner vs. awning company owner.
Let’s step out of the bar and into product management. Stakeholders often have all-or-nothing thinking, putting pressure on product and tech teams to provide detailed estimates or (gulp!) a commitment for delivery x weeks or x months from today. Even Agile teams feel the pain from business partners who are Agile, empirically learning forward, only until their pet project is ready for teams to consume it.
We know by now that the product area can’t change stakeholder sentiment or desires overnight, nor should they try. Rather, the savvy technical product manager or product manager works to diligently plant seeds in each interaction they have. These seeds will eventually grow into the concept that fast learning with a customer focus is more efficient and enables an organization to do more with less than any up-front commitment can do. Stakeholders can change when they see the value for them and for their customers.
The other seed these product professionals plant over and over again is collaboration between business and tech, so that the gaps close in and alignment happens. With alignment there is better connection to the work and ultimately efficiencies and a better product. Remember, these are seeds, not big room planning. Nothing wrong with big room planning, but the work I’m highlighting here is much smaller and occurs much more often.
Here are some examples on how to diligently work to plant these seeds:
Technical product briefing. A short, focused meeting with product, tech, architecture, and any special forces needed to help shape some fast learning on the current product.
Intentional collaborations with the right people in the (virtual) room. Specific Slack channel. Try a report out every two weeks or monthly.
Examine your current feedback loops (those meetings!!) and determine if they are what you and your stakeholders and customer need right now.
Use your curiosity to be creative on how to plant seeds that will grow into a mindset of small bets, also called fast learning. Ace it!