Don’t Fear the Future

Lamb Book CoverI just finished reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore for fun, and it was a great read. It is a humorous take on Jesus’ childhood, wherein he visits several wise gurus alongside his friend, Biff. One quote in particular stuck out to me:

“All fear comes from trying to see the future, Biff. If you know what is coming, you aren’t afraid.” (p.231)

To me, this was an intriguing take on the one of the most important and challenging responsibilities of a Product Manager: to create and communicate a vision for the future. If a Product Manager does not do this well, there will be fear as team members and stakeholders are left to prognosticate on their own. They won’t have the full context of solutions that are viable, feasible, and usable, and will thus assume the future will fail in one or more of these aspects. From unsellable products to technical meltdowns, everyone has a boogeyman product that they never want to revisit. And this nightmare project is the first thing that comes to mind for them when they think about what might happen. A Product Manager may see this fear in decreased team productivity, lose of stakeholder trust, and time wasted squashing rumors.

So what can a Product Manager do to avoid this fear? By creating a clear vision, using Lean Canvases and other methods to show the “what” and “why” for the plan, team members and stakeholders can see the future. A plan doesn’t magically make everyone agree, and folks will certainly question the plan and raise risks. This questioning is healthy as it gets their fears out, helping to refine the plan and focus the vision in the places that matter the most for them. Iterating on a plan ultimately leads to a supported vision that everyone can rally behind.

The next time, or the first time, you’re making a plan for the future, think about what you’re doing to remove fear for your team and stakeholders. I think you’ll find the planning, even if it can be repetitive, is more engaging when you think about the emotional relief you’re providing to others by helping to remove fear from an unknown future.

The First Product Demo

A new Product Manager needs to demonstrate expertise in a product to gain respect and trust from others in the organization. A great way to prove this expertise is by giving a product demo to a set of internal key stakeholders and SMEs for feedback. This important audience will be able to see that the PM understands the product features, how those features contribute to an effective sales message, and get a chance to give the PM feedback for when they need to demo the product for customers. These key stakeholders are typically folks from the development team, marketing, support, and other product managers. The demo can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on the product, and can be formatted however the new PM wants, as long as there’s time for questions and feedback. Since Jenni is helping manage 5 products, she’s doing three of these demos to cover the various product lines.

Whether the new Product Manager has given demos before or not, hopefully the tips below will help them be successful for their demo to gain the trust they’ll need to be successful.

    • Do your research – Talk to key stakeholders ahead of time to get their views on the product. This especially goes for Sales and Marketing where hearing a sales pitch or up-sell message will give great material for this demo.
    • Tell a story – A story helps give a foundation to your demo as well as win interest from the audience. Tell a compelling problem that brings users to your product, and how your product relieves user pain.
    • Use real data – Partner your story with screenshots or a live demo that shows a user’s account in action. This makes the story real and tangible. Screenshots remove any complication from technical, but for this demo a live account gives more opportunity for the stakeholders to give feedback or ask questions.
    • Focus on benefits instead of features – As the demo shows off the product, focus on the customer benefits and advantages in the marketplace rather than features. This shows understanding of how the customers use the product as well as mastery of what’s really important to customers.
    • Leverage analogies – Having analogies for various product concepts can help communicate what a product does and set up a quick foundation for product concepts. There are likely several analogies that Sales and Marketing use when describing the product to new prospects, and the PM needs to be aware of how they’re used.
    • Strike the right level of complexity – A great demo knows the audience, and sets the complexity at the right level. For this demo the complexity will be more than a real customer demo, but don’t get too distracted by details during the demo or the demo will easily take too much time.

Avoiding Distractions With Pomodoro

By Erato at Italian Wikinews via Wikimedia Commons
By Erato at Italian Wikinews via Wikimedia Commons

A Product Manager’s job is full of distractions. From support issues to pressing Team questions, the day can fly by with time only spent on what’s “urgent” rather than what’s “important.” It can be especially difficult for a new Product Manager to control the constant interruptions as their prior role was likely not interrupt-driven. It’s thus important to help a new Product Manager learn techniques that can help them be efficient with their day. Pomodoro is one such excellent technique, and a great one for you to either learn along with a new Product Manager or a simple method to teach them.

The Pomodoro Technique offers a simple approach to creating space in your day for dedicated focus on important items. A Pomodoro is 25 minutes of uninterrupted time, followed by a 5 minute break. Of course you must defend the Pomodoro from distraction by turning off your computer’s notification (Mac’s “Do Not Disturb” feature is great) and silencing your phone. You then set a timer, either physical or on your computer, for 25 minutes and get to work. You don’t get up for a coffee, you don’t check your email, and you don’t change your Pandora station. You just focus on the task you’ve assigned yourself until it’s done. If an interruption occurs, such as someone coming to your desk, you ask them kindly if you can get back to them at your next break (up to 25 minutes from now). If you tell them that you need to focus on an important piece of work and will get back to them shortly, they’ll understand. And if something truly urgent and important comes up, you cancel your Pomodoro to handle it, but you get no credit for your partial Pomodoro.

When the 25 minute Pomodoro is done, give yourself a pat on the back, and take a break from your computer. Get up, stretch, grab a drink and use the bathroom. Then come on back and sit down for you next Pomodoro. Practice makes perfect, and one of the key rules for Pomodoro is “The next Pomodoro will go better.” When first learning the technique try it out during a time that naturally less filled with interruptions to get in the habit.

For your timer, some folks like a physical kitchen timer as they love the feel of winding the clock. You can’t easily cancel a kitchen timer, and they find the quiet tick-tick of the clock soothing. For me, I prefer a virtual timer as it’s quiet for my co-workers and I like to listen to music while I work. You can find many free options, and on Mac you can search the App Store for “Pomodoro” for many choices.

There’s much more to be covered to be effective on the Pomodoro technique, and I’ll cover advanced techniques in future posts. For now, this is all you need to get started, to give yourself 25 minutes of focused time in your day. Try it out and see how effective you can be with some Pomodoros. If you want to learn more now, check out this free 40 page PDF ebook.