Cultivating a Product Mindset: How “No” became “YES, if…” became “Yes, IF…”
One of the hardest lessons a product owner has to learn is when to say no. Many people who seek a product role do so because the idea of what is possible entrances them. The type of person who looks at what exists and finds fulfillment in realizing their vision of what it could be. That kind of mindset clashes with the need to keep a well-groomed backlog that admits only a fraction of the requests customers send your way.
In my product journey, I found balance by embracing the wisdom of a customer experience visionary, Walt Disney. In Marty Sklar’s book “Dream It! Do It! My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdoms”, Disney Legend Harrison “Buzz” Price described what it was like to follow Walt’s leadership in building the dream that became Disneyland.
“Walt recognized the fickleness of audiences and the challenge of always providing something new. For me, this great entrepreneurial adventure was an exposure to ‘yes if’ consulting as a more useful format than ‘no because’ …
‘Yes if’ was the language of an enabler, pointing to what needed to be done to make the possible plausible. Walt liked this language. ‘No, because’ is the language of a deal killer. ‘Yes, if’ is the approach of a deal maker. Creative people thrive on ‘yes if.’”
This should resonate with anyone in a product role because it refocuses a “No” into a positive but realistic approach.
Knowing When to Say “No”
Consider this common scenario. A member of your sales team comes to you and asks if your team can embed a monthly video into your platform, promoting all the new features released so customers can get excited.
The creative side of your Product Owner brain starts firing on all cylinders about the benefits of this idea. It increases communication, it celebrates the platform, it gives another channel to reach customers. This sounds like an easy decision! But then you consider the hard questions:
- “Does this mean you have to maintain a development schedule that supports new exciting releases each month?”
- “You don’t currently share videos on the site, so is a development project needed to put them somewhere?”
- “Who is going to produce these videos and make them look professional?”
- “Are you going to give away proprietary secrets of your platform by giving an internal view to the competition?”
- “Is this worth the expense in time and money compared to other projects?”
At this point that a responsible project owner should say “No” because the idea doesn’t account for the realities of what it will take. But that leaves an unsatisfied sales person with the impression that you don’t consider their ideas important and that Product/IT aren’t interested in collaborating.
Knowing How to Say “Yes”
By saying “No”, you have done your job as a Product Owner. But what if you take a moment to view those questions in the context of “Yes, If…” Suddenly, you’ve reframed the entire conversation.
- “Yes, if we can agree that not every message has to be groundbreaking. If we focus on how even slight changes enhance our customers’ experience, then we build a sustainable, valuable communication channel.”
- “Yes, if we use an existing marketing channel to promote them. That way we can validate that customers will consume this content before we put effort into modifying the platform to house them.”
- “Yes, if you can also start working with the video team to design and film them to consistent standards. Are you willing to take the lead on that?”
- “Yes, if we can agree the communicating our strengths to customers is more important to hiding the special sauce that makes us great.”
- “Yes, if we can put an adoption plan in place for how we’ll drive users to view it and then measure whether engagement with the videos translates to increased usage of the platform.”
Now you aren’t building up roadblocks to success, you’re throwing out challenges to be met as a team. Maybe this idea isn’t ready for prime time today, but you’ve helped your colleague to understand what it will take to be successful and enlisted them as a collaborator.
With this mindset, you become an optimist that people want to work with. You get to stop saying “No” to other people’s wants, while subtly teaching them to say “No” to themselves until they’ve thought through what success looks like.
Knowing Why to Say “If”
I’ve taken this positive approach since I was a senior developer, long before I understood the impact of a product focus. It helped me build a career and eventually lead a team of like-minded individuals. But over time I found the meaning of “Yes, If…” has subtly shifted.
It’s easy to love saying “Yes.” It feels good to be the hero that always sees the path forward. But eventually, that responsible product brain has to kick in and that’s when you emphasize “If.”
I have the pleasure of working with people that know their market and have a passion to serve our customers. They are not shy in coming up with an endless stream of improvements, especially when they frequently hear yes. But as the backlog swells with potential, I find “yes” is getting quieter and quieter next to the rising number of “Ifs.”
“If” is the key to your success as a Product Owner. “If” is positive, but realistic. Sometimes “If” even sounds a lot like “No”. And that’s okay. Because when you balance creativity and responsibility to create a product oriented mindset, you can make the possible plausible.
References
Sklar, M. (2013). Dream It! Do It! My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdom. New York: Disney Editions.
