Product management has several aspects to it ranging from several product development methodologies, techniques, tools and even philosophy. An important part that hasn’t been spoken or written about too much is the role of candour in product management and more specifically in building products. Even though I’m specifically referring to technology products here, the same possibly applies to any other product as well, or to services for that matter.
Let’s see what ‘candor’ means — break it down to its meaning. Merriam-Webster states:
Candor: the quality of being open, sincere, and honest
Unreserved, honest, or sincere expression
freedom from bias; fairness; impartiality:
These 2 lines couldn’t have better described the approach that every stakeholder on the team building the product needs to have, follow and religiously abide to.
The reason that so many companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon succeed (apart from other reasons of course) is the culture of being brutally honest with regards to the outcome, rather than measuring how much effort was put in actually building it. This, in most cases, and even in the example above, does come from the founders to an extent. If the creator of the product decides to mince words with regards to the product, then every other team member falls in that habit. Then the only person who is really, really honest is the end customer — and by then the product has passed through so many levels of “nice, flowery feedback” that customer feedback comes harsh, strong and usually bad.
If the creators can’t be honest about what’s failing in the product (or even what’s really working well) then the customer will. And that is a situation you don’t want to be in.
There are several stages where a candid, honest assessment needs to be given, taken and discussed between team members. The most important part at each stage is to make sure that the feedback is on the product / idea or feature and does not get personal. Usually a leader — maybe a product owner / product manager or CEO needs to be present to give direction to the feedback or to make sure the feedback does stays focussed.
Ideation: Call an idea good or bad and move ahead quickly to execution. Indecision causes more delays. Even more wastage is caused by calling a bad idea a good one just to avoid being candid and hurting feelings.
Design: This is a tricky part to give a candid feedback on. Good design will always stir debate. But this is a good place to be in. Honest, open debates will lead to better design as long as both parties are able to logically justify their part. Bad design is usually, bad design. And design feedback being honest is extremely important. If you decide to be too polite and take a safer route with feedback on this, then your product is doomed instantly. There are good products and there are great products. Great products are the result of high octane, active, heated debate between 2 parties who are insanely good at their job. Bad products are a result of a) Bad design b) Diplomatic and ‘don’t-ruffle-feathers’ feedback on the bad design.
Development: Sometimes the code works like crap. Because its written like crap. And that’s what needs to be said. This doesn’t mean you point fingers, what it means is that you appreciate that the job done at hand is bad and it needs to be improved. No point appreciating the effort if the outcome is not what is intended.
Distribution: Some channels work well than others. In fact the Pareto principal applies here as well. Make sure you don’t fool yourself in believing that the last platform that you spent quite a bit on has given you good results (just because its your favourite). Be honest that you were wrong about the chosen channel, do your analysis and move onto the right ones. “Let’s see how the next one does” usually is a trip down cash-burn-land.
People: The most trickiest part, and not many people will agree with me here. But some people suck. Not because they are bad at their job, but because they don’t want to do their job. It’s better to have people who aren’t the best, but are willing to grind it than have people who bring only excuses to the table. It’s not helping anyone — not the product, not the company and especially not the person himself. Honest feedback given at the right time in the right quantity will benefit the person and even more — the product.
Value: Some things are simply features and products, and not really businesses. It will be difficult to reach this conclusion, but its important to be brutally honest and rational about the true potential of any product. Some ideas are good, really good, and the implementation is flawless. But the product-market fit might not be there, or it might be for a very specific niche that won’t translate into sustainable cash generation. Review yourself dispassionately and take the next step.
In conclusion, revisit the very definition of candor: “Freedom from bias”, It’s the most important part of this process that will make or break your teams.
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Originally published at www.linkedin.com.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
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Check out my version of candor and what amazing role it plays :))
As featured in CFO India (Nov-Dec 2013 issue). Complete article appears after the image:
I am reminded of a very interesting incident that I experienced in my father’s factory 13 years ago.
I was making ‘Argyle’ socks (like the one photographed here) for exports. This was my first order for these socks. After having made them in various color combinations, we began packing them in typical ‘bundles’ wrapped together using adhesive stickers that displayed the size and the price, etc.
After all the packing was done, in the final inspection, I just picked out one bundle and opened it like a consumer. As I ripped the adhesive sticker from the socks, I got a heart attack! The THREAD of the small ‘criss cross’ lines that make the Argyle pattern so famous began ripping out of the socks (since they had got attached to the sticker and were not strong enough to stay in the socks). Hence, every TOP SOCK in every bundle would be damaged via the sticker on top of it when opened by the buyer.
I had no clue what to do. The shipment was leaving my factory for the docks in 3 hours. It was 1 pm in the afternoon. Interestingly, the socks had PASSED inspection from Europe and India (I guess they had not opened the bundles OR that the sticker had become problematic over time) – so technically I was good to Ship.
I decided to be honest and called up my buyer. He had a sample bundle on his desk and he immediately could understand the problem when he opened the bundle like any consumer would.
The conversation that followed is the lesson of this story:
The buyer first THANKED me for being honest and truthful. Then he revealed that ARGYLE socks supplied by other manufacturers were also being returned to their stores for reasons that could not understand TILL NOW – since I had revealed the problem of the ROGUE adhesive. This was a global problem for them.
The buyers extended my timeline and PAID FOR THE EXTRA TOP SOCKS we had to produce!! They also gave us many more orders in the years to come and almost began skipping inspections for our consignments.
In all businesses and professions, very unexpected and difficult moments arise. I believe it’s best to:
– Immediately tell the people impacted what’s gone or going wrong (VCs are always keen to know what’s NOT working in their startups)
– Try and solve the problem if possible with FULL DISCLOSURE rather than through a veil.
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