Logotherapy is Product Management work
Many words were written about the essence of the product manager role, yet it is still an elusive term. Could the product manager's role be crucial to a company’s success and yet be vaguely defined? How is it possible?
In my opinion, the philosophy behind products is the root cause. Today I want to share with you my take on that:
“delivering products that have value to customers, hence earning money”
The essence of this sentence highlights the need to be valuable to our customers. But what is value? How is it measured? to clarify the meaning behind the word value, I would like to deep dive into Victor Frankel’s work — “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
I recommend Victor’s masterpiece for those who seek to understand the meaning of life. Later I will link it to the PM role, but first, let me put in my own words: Logotherapy explains our life's essence is seeking meaning. Logotherapy was founded upon the belief that striving to find purpose in life is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in our lives. According to Frankl:
“We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.”
Victor also explains that meaning is how our voice and ideas come to the world and come back to us after reaching other people. Dear reader, this is the very reason I'm writing this article. I'm spreading my ideas, hoping that they will come back to me after you gave them some though — creating a cycle where I'm giving you value and gaining myself meaning.
Now we can take that concept into our product management strategy. Understanding that people need meaning and gaining it requires spreading their ideas is a fundamental concept we can use to create real value for our customers. It is effortless in any social media product, as they are designed for spreading our voice and getting feedback — it's just too trivial in their case. But what if our product is B2B based? What if our targeted persona is the average Joe, doing his day to day job in marketing/finance/HR or anything else? Well, let me tell you, the same concept applies! Seek to give Joe a way to express himself with your product while doing his job, and you are on track for a meaningful outcome. A tangible one, where your users feel the added value from your product because they feel good using it. It’s all because they gain meaning while using it.
Some examples can be features that address the need to show the outcome, like reports. The average Joe can spread his ideas with those outcome reports, and gain meaning. Another example might be sharable favorites, which can help Joe spread his idea’s about what's important in the product. There are many ways and many features that can be under the “meaning” category, and I suggest you start thinking about them in this way.
