Product Managers, which super hero character are you?
Discover your super power and embrace it fully.
I have struggled with answering this question all my life — if you were a super hero, what would your super power be?
I loved the idea of flying considering all that air in your face and the freedom to go anywhere. No need to deal with traffic. Beyond that, nothing else about that idea fascinated me. For a time I thought I wanted to be invisible. Those were the teenage years of my life and I didn’t want to deal with my parents when I was in trouble. The creepy ramifications of that super power got obvious fast and I gave up on that. Laser eyes, super flexibility, spidey senses, super speed — all good but none of them resonated with me.
And although I love living in my fantasy world, I couldn’t envision these super powers in the real world. You know what was real though and taking over the world — technology! I saw the evolution of a phone, I saw the internet transform businesses and personal lives, and I saw how technology made problems simpler.
I knew I wanted be in the world of tech creation.
I digress.
When we look at the MCU and how it was built, we see the introduction of various characters. We see how they use their powers, usually lost at first but always ending up doing the right thing. We also see them struggle and needing some help. And we cannot help but thank the contributions of one man for the most awaited movie of 2019, Avengers Endgame, and saving the world — Colonel Nicholas Joseph Fury a.k.a. Nick Fury.
Nick Fury is not a super hero in the traditional sense of the term.
He’s tasked with becoming the commander of S.H.I.E.L.D. Under his leadership, the vision of collective strength of all super heroes to save earth and humanity is brought to life.
He is also responsible for implementation of orders from authority of S.H.I.E.L.D. He makes it the most powerful organization in the world.
See where I am going with this?
Product Managers are the Nick Fury of product management universe!
Product Managers demonstrate skills that will result in successful and effective products. They need to bring the super heroes of this universe from product marketers, developers or sponsors together to save the world.
Stakeholder Management
Like Nick Fury, Product Managers are expected to manage the expectations of authorities whether it’s from S.H.I.E.L.D. authority or the governments of the world.
A stakeholder is any person who can have an impact on your product.
They need to be engaged continuously throughout the life-cycle to understand their constraints and motivation. This is a surefire way to avoid any misunderstanding and manage competing objectives from the get-go. The stakeholders need to be a given the voice to contribute in the product plan because they are ultimately responsible for supporting the project. When the stakeholders do not understand what the product does, it is the responsibility of a Product Manager to explain and evangelize their products.
Conflict resolution
When you are dealing with super powerful corporations and super heroes of the world, there are bound to be conflicts that need resolving. This is a delicate task. The key to delivering a successful product is building relationships with ongoing support and commitment from the developers, executives, marketing team and others depending on the structure of your organization.
Conflict is inevitable, but the resulting doom? Not quite so.
Your assets to stay calm in heated situations (check out how Yogendra Yadav does it!), and to address if and what the problem actually is.
In my experience conflicts arise due to two reasons –
- Difference in opinion
- Difference in understanding
Understanding the motivation behind the conflict helps us to solve the core of the problem. If opinions differ, take the emotion out of the equation and work towards making everyone understand that we work for the same team. If there is a difference in understanding, then know where the chain of communication broke down.
And always, do not forget to appreciate the support from your teams proactively.
A happy team is a productive team!
Product Vision
When you encounter an idea worth fighting for, you have your vision. I used to think creating a product vision was daunting. I learned that it helps to go back a step and go forward a step.
What do I mean?
In creating a product vision, it helps to understand what problem was the product trying to solve? What was the stimulus behind creating it? What is the change we want to instigate in user behavior?
The product vision is not simply a plan to completion. It is goal that governs the plan to completion. Without right vision for your product, the pivoting the strategy to help complete the goal will not be possible (reference to Lean Startup).
Visualize, define and verify the product vision at all stages of the life-cycle.
Strategy
Your product roadmap will show you how your product grows and how you can plan for it. Employing the right strategy to bring the vision to life is the most important responsibility of a Product Manager. Your product roadmap should tell a coherent story and it is a vital tool to get buy in from stakeholders.
Another thing — know where and when you are failing. Strategies fail. Nick Fury went into hiding at one point because he needed to re-strategize. Acknowledge it and move towards changing your plan while keeping the vision in mind.
So you can see how I relate to Nick Fury? So what if he doesn’t fly or doesn’t have super strength or can’t grow or shrink in size? He had the vision to create the Avengers initiative and save Earth.
I want to save the world myself!
