The Lens - Edition 2 - Solving ambiguous problems, Manual of Me, Measuring what matters
(Ok, this time with fixed formatting and easier to read. Sorry about previous one).
Welcome to The Lens - Edition 2, my newsletter on Product Management and related topics. I include some of the content I came across that you may find useful if you are interested in getting into Product Management or just interested in learning more. If you like what you read, please forward it to someone you think may get value. Thank you.
Solving ambiguous problems
I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the problem to solve. Funnily, as if the confusion around the title and role of Product Manager is not enough, there have been calls to refer PMs as Problem Managers. I concur that it is a good definition for the duties of a ‘new product’ manager, and hence by definition, it may not include all the different types that are today under the umbrella term PM. Moving beyond the semantics, I chuckled at reading through this post on ambiguous problem solving which outlines a weighted, ranked approach to compare the options. I chuckled because that’s exactly how I approach comparisons in my life and realized what a geek I must be. I should say, adding an expected value analysis will make it even more interesting.
On the topic of solving challenging problems, this article on First Round, is a great read. There are a lot of take-aways for problem solvers, leaders of people, and in general anyone in the technology product space. I have many favorites whether it is about going deep -
Always look for those opportunities where it’s easy to stop, where it gets tedious. That typically is a signal that somebody or a bunch of people just haven’t gotten deeper before.
Or whether it is about leadership:
Sharing as much context as possible with the person you trust to get something done is like a superpower. It’s almost like downloading your brain into their brain.
Metrics
In my previous edition, I talked a little about metrics. I have been reading a fantastic book (aff) on building better products and it breaks down different types of metrics really well. Obviously the most important metrics are Business Metrics, Performance Metrics (my name, she names them as User Experience and Engineering Metrics), and Product Health Metrics. In addition, she brings up a really good point that people lose track of actual metric by focusing only on leading metric. Leading metric is something that is easy to track, because of a hypothesis that it is linked to a metric we would want but will happen in the future. It is important to test that hypothesis periodically, and also to understand the relation well. Feature specific and vanity metrics are two other types of metrics.
It is very important to measure right. I have always been a big fan of Josh Elman’s The only metric that matters post. Despite the title and sentiment, you won’t get away by measuring only one thing :) But it is indeed the most simplest approach to understand, and serves as a starting point to dig deeper.
Manual of Me / Blueprint:
I am going to write about something different from Product Management as a practice, but will help any new Product Manager, or a new employee, new manager, a new leader and even a talent magnet. Most importantly it will help anyone introspect, which in itself is valuable.
What’s that magic bullet, you ask? Well, two years ago, it used to be referred as ‘Manual of Me’. I was inspired by a few resources such as Writing a User Manual, Creating a personal user manual and Leaders need user manual. Based on those guides, I created my own Manual some time ago, but had not published it anywhere. Recently some of the renowned leaders such as LinkedIn’s founder Reid Hoffman, and Shopify’s Luc Levesque have published similar guides called Blueprints.
Here are some additional resources on why it matters - A user guide to working with you, by Julie Zhou, Fostering psychological safety, by Anne-Laure Le Cuff , Why you should write a user manual by Marko Saric and The indispensable document for modern manager. I recommend you create one, whether or not you would like to publish it, it would still be a valuable introspection.
I leave you with these thoughts. Let me know if you have any feedback. And do share with whoever is in the early stages of their PM career or is interested in getting into Product Management.