Build better habits, build better products
To change how we work, we cannot just put in more effort. We have to work smarter.
A product manager’s main responsibility is to prioritize work, but we don’t do the same with our own calendars. This matters because how a PM spends their time can directly affect the quality of the product. A study done on organizational change1 reveals that setting behavioral goals (i.e. project teams meet once a week) is a much better indicator of success than setting metrics goals (i.e. increase revenue by 50%). How can we better change our behaviors to set ourselves up for success?
Product managers tend to have good habits around execution (thanks Agile!). But there isn’t a similar structure in place for discovery and analysis. Because these activities are conducted solo, our time spent in these areas is often derailed by meetings, emails, and fire drills. Per the expression “Measure twice, cut once,” skimping on discovery and analysis is the number one reason we build the wrong things. Luckily, it is an easy fix. Building habits around honing these skills consistently will lead to better products.
Discovery
Discovery always gets thrown out the window first. How many times have you been interrupted mid-discovery by an “urgent” Slack message? The secret is that Slack is really not that urgent, but discovery is hard, time consuming, and frustrating. It feels much easier (and more productive) to respond to a Slack message than to synthesize unhappy customer reviews. Here’s how to keep discovery from falling off your to-do list.
Block out recurring time each week in your calendar for discovery. Seriously. Not in a “my time is blocked but feel free to schedule over it” way, in an actual, “I will decline your meeting if you schedule during this time” way. Just like anything, understanding your customers and their ever-changing needs takes time. Even better, be specific about the type of discovery you want to do, so you can get right to it. I have three 30-minute blocks in my calendar each week for different discovery activities, which gives me 90 minutes of planned discovery that I would otherwise fill with emails, slack, and meetings.
If only my calendar was this free… Ask “How could I have learned this sooner?” When we think about discovery, the goal should be to maximize learnings about our customers. I tend to gravitate towards A/B tests for customer insights, which are powerful but take time and require development effort. Whenever I learn a new insight from a test, I like to ask myself “Could I have learned this in a survey?” That way, the next time I have an idea, I will remember to at least consider an alternative to an A/B test. Keep a running list of methods and learnings to check for patterns in the methods you gravitate towards.
Triangulate with data. We tend to fall in love with our own ideas. We know this, and yet we do it anyways. The next time you hear a customer complaint that inspires you, cross-reference it with data. How big is this opportunity really, and how much of it can we actually solve? This will keep you from sinking all of your resources into a problem that sounds promising, but only affects 0.01% of your customers.
Analysis
Much like discovery, analysis takes consistent practice. It can be easy to glaze over dashboards without fully understanding them, and to fall victim to confirmation bias, where we cherry-pick data points that support our own ideas. Luckily, there are ways to create habits around data that keep us in check.
Look at data every day. This builds familiarity with patterns so you can quickly spot anomalies. Many analysis tools (i.e. Tableau) let you subscribe to alerts or daily emails, which can be helpful as you build up this habit. It also helps you identify issues much faster. Tracking down a drop in retention that happened weeks ago is an arduous task, and the only way I’ve found to avoid it is to get ahead of it.
Do a weekly deep dive on the “why”. If you are anything like me, it is one thing to look at data, and it is another to understand it. To understand data, we have to be able to tell the story of what we are seeing and why we are seeing it, consistently. One way to do this? Write a weekly email on the performance and the why of your North Star metric. Not only does this help you identify opportunities (and gives you major props from stakeholders), but it can save you time when your boss asks you about a 10% drop in retention that happened three months ago (clearly this was a traumatic experience for me).
Adopt pair programming when you feel stuck. Trying to make sense of data can be daunting. When I feel like I’m in over my head, I like to get on Zoom and screen share with a coworker. It’s a great way to pick up tips on how to slice and dice data (I’ve learned more about Google Analytics watching coworkers use it than I’ve learned on my own) and also to test your ideas. Share a hypothesis about what you are seeing with a coworker to see if theirs matches. It’s a great way to expand your thinking and also check your instincts.
What habits have you built around discovery and analysis? Let’s continue to learn from each other.
Additional reading:
Switch by Dan & Chip Heath
Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
Decisive by Dan & Chip Health
Study from The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal, also mentioned in Switch