🔥 Hot Take: Everyone wants product to be frkn complicated
Did we overcomplicate product over time? Why has the role of product managers become entangled in layers of processes, frameworks, and tools?
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I am part of a friends/product leaders group chat called The Stooges. Why is it called that? I have no idea! The Stooges and I were chatting the other day about how product is getting complicated for no reason.
Product used to be straightforward: understand the customer, build a solution, and iterate based on feedback. Fast-forward to today, and the landscape looks dramatically different.
The Shift Towards Complexity
In recent years, the role of product managers has become entangled in layers of processes, frameworks, and tools. While some structure is necessary, we seem to have lost sight of the core principles that drive successful product development. Here are a few of my observations:
Process Overload
Agile, Lean, Kanban, SAFe – the list goes on. Each methodology has its merits, and they were created to improve efficiency and outcomes. However, the obsession with adhering strictly to one framework can stifle creativity and agility. The more rigid the process, the less room there is for innovation. Product managers find themselves bogged down by procedures rather than focusing on creating value. This seems like the opposite of being “Agile”.
Tool Proliferation
There's a tool for everything now – roadmap planning, user feedback, A/B testing, analytics. While these tools are designed to make our lives easier, they often add more complexity and overhead. Switching between multiple platforms, ensuring data consistency, and training team members on new software can detract from the actual product development work.
Data Overflow
Data-driven decision-making is crucial, but an over-reliance on metrics can lead to analysis paralysis. With an abundance of data at our fingertips, the challenge becomes knowing which metrics truly matter. Sometimes, gut instinct and qualitative feedback are equally important. Balancing data with intuition can help in making more holistic decisions.
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein.
Stakeholder Management
With more teams involved in product development, managing stakeholders has become a full-time job. The focus shifts from building great products to endless meetings and alignment sessions. While collaboration is essential, excessive stakeholder management can dilute the product vision and slow down the decision-making process.
Feature Creep
In the race to outdo competitors, there's a push to add more features. However, this often results in bloated products that confuse users rather than delight them. More features do not necessarily equate to a better product. Instead, they can lead to a fragmented user experience and increased maintenance overhead.
Returning to Basics
It's time to simplify. Let's return to the basics and focus on what truly matters in product management:
Understand the User
Spend more time talking to customers. Direct interaction provides invaluable insights that no amount of data can substitute. Understand their pain points, needs, and how they use your product. This empathetic approach will ensure that the products we build truly resonate with our users.
"You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around." - Steve Jobs.
Build Iteratively
Focus on delivering small, incremental improvements rather than aiming for a perfect product out of the gate. This approach not only reduces risk but also allows for more frequent user feedback, which can be incorporated into subsequent iterations.
Stay Agile
Be flexible and adaptable, not rigidly adherent to a single process. Adaptability is a core tenet of agile methodologies, yet we often forget this in favour of strict adherence to processes. An agile mindset is more valuable than any specific agile framework.
Value Intuition
Trust your instincts alongside data. While data is essential, it's not the whole picture. Intuition, informed by experience and user interactions, can guide better decision-making. Balance is key.
Wrapping It Up
In a world that is already complex and rapidly evolving, our goal should be to create more value and better experiences, not complexity. Simplifying our approach can lead to more innovative products, happier users, and more fulfilled product teams. It’s on us as product leaders to mentor and coach our teams accordingly. So, for the love of all things product, let’s just go back to basics.