Idioms are the distillates of years of wisdom. You know they make sense – and can make sense in ways beyond what you can understand them to be.
As a product manager, the worst thing that can happen to you is when something blows up in your face. A piece of functionality that you launched as your differentiator and trumpeted from the rooftops does not quite work as designed, or a stray use case that your product was not designed for or tested against creates quite a stir in the marketplace. Things can go horribly wrong if something like that ever happens and you NEVER want to be there. So, how do you avoid such situations? What do you need to do? That’s where the idiom comes in – Still waters run deep. Want a calm post launch experience? Immerse yourself into the product and its development.
We all know that it is simpler said than done. After all, if you are spending all your time looking at the current functionality being developed, where do you have the time to think about the future? Well, that’s a good thought. But just as important as the vision is, the execution makes all the difference. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So, what’s a good approach?
1. Define the problem well: Know why you are building the functionality. What is the market problem that you are looking to solve? Understand the types of users and scenarios that face the problems and why they are going to look to your product to solve that problem for them. Discuss with them about the possible scenarios that they may face. Understand to great details the ethnography of their job and how they will use your product once it comes in. Get to know what they want, why they want it, how they’re going to use the solution that you’re going to build, and how that is going to help them. Knowing your problem well will help you understand everything that you need in the product to make sure that it works. And that can be the input to a great PRD
2. Remain connected through the development: You may be the smartest person in the universe. But, there are others that can think in ways very different from you. And that perspective will uncover a lot of new insights. Remember to accept new ideas. Welcome questions and suggestions; do not be shy of asking for help and suggestions. Also remember to ask development all the key questions – look beyond functionality into performance, user experience, the limitations, the toughest challenges in the implementation. Appreciate their challenges and their implementation – you never know where the points of failure lie.
3. QA time is crunch time: No one likes gaps in the product requirements being pointed out by QA engineers. Hey, but that’s much, much better than having a problem identified by a customer. I’m not saying wait for QA to tell you about requirement gaps – but it is your job to challenge them to test the product in every possible way. Ensure that they simulate the real world environments, do load testing, and ensure that they try to find the limits of the product – you need to be sure that the product is good to go out there when it is ready
4. If you can do a beta, do it: Beta releases help your customers try out functionality. So, the product is with real world users even if it is not in a production environment. The nature of external testing is very different from internal testing and can uncover issues that you have not even dreamt of. Ensure that you give enough time for beta testing and follow up aggressively to ensure that the product works as designed and that the design is what your customers are excited about. Make sure to check that the market problem that you designed the problem to solve is actually getting solved.
5. Validate, validate, and validate: Better safe than sorry. Run through the functionality with your engineering team. Talk to them about challenges, limitations, tested and untested scenarios, functional and non-functional requirements – ensure that you have got it right before you release the product to the marketplace.
Remember, as the product manager – this is your baby. You cannot let the product go awry. You cannot deflect the blame. I know that no one is infallible – but then, if you cannot take the responsibility for your product – no one else will. So, make sure to immerse yourself into your product, technology, and market space and ensure that you have had tabs on it through every stage of the product’s development. Running deep will keep the waters still….and keep you out of deep water.
Do you think these mantras will help ensure that your products are successful in the marketplace? Let me know what you think.
