The most important capability of the product manager: Let the right thing happen one after another

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The most important capability of a product manager is not a skill, but "let the right thing happen one after another 」.

Two interesting and thought-provoking things happened recently.

First, we found last week that the news titles on our webpage show different lengths on different systems. Some can see the complete title, and some can see one less word. This is not the first time that a similar problem occurs. Previously, I vaguely thought that it may have something to do with font rendering, but let the product manager in charge of this product line look at it. Later, I asked the engineer casually. The engineer did not mention the reason, but suggested that we strictly control the number of words to avoid display differences in different environments. This is even done.

When I found this problem again last week, I suddenly got a little worried. So I ran to the site with my colleague in charge. After reading two or three machines, I probably guessed the problem. After I came back, I typed the problem into Google and press Enter. I clicked on the first three search results to find out the original committee, we also found a better solution. It took less than half an hour to solve a problem that had never been solved before.

The second thing is from an old colleague who once worked in a company. He is a product manager with about year 45 work experience. When talking about his responsibilities, he is full of anger, which probably means that the partner is unreliable, unreliable engineers and unreliable bosses. His ideas cannot be realized. The project he proposed is hard for everyone, and the tasks he assigned are not cooperative.

The implication is that he has done his best, but others have not done well. This is not his responsibility.

These two things have been constantly fermented, and I finally figured out the truth: for product managers, the most valuable ability is not what communication, document writing, and analysis needs. Instead, "Let the right thing happen one after another 」.

I have heard of a saying like this: "What is talent? Talent is to give him one thing, and he has done it. Let him do another thing 」. I thought this sentence was dumb, but now I want to give it a thumbs up.

When our goal is only to cope with work tasks, we will focus on functional boundaries and work responsibilities. We will do our part well and wait for others to finish the part that belongs to them. When others fail to finish the work as expected, we will be cynical, I think that their incompetence affects the achievement of the goal. I intentionally or unintentionally think, "It doesn't matter if it doesn't happen. It's just a matter of my responsibilities 」.

The second step is to make excuses and be helpless. I feel that my hero is useless. Gold is buried by sand, And I am killed by incompetent and stupid environments, colleagues, bosses, company systems, and company culture.

On the contrary, if our goal is to "let things happen", the status will be completely different. In order to make things happen, you have to kill your eyes, and you have to block others from killing others.

Engineers do not understand the requirements. Whether we draw pictures, write documents, make prototypes, or directly show them the requirements, we must get them to understand the needs. If our partners do not cooperate, we can be either a threat or a lure, when you pat the table with a red face Or kneel down, you must get them to work together. If the boss doesn't support it, we will prove your point of view with the minimum price and complete logic to persuade him, he was persuaded every day and night, and he was blocked in the toilet to persuade him. he dragged him in the elevator to persuade him, rolled around, grabbed his head, and put the turret around his neck to persuade him;

The technical or business problems that my team's colleagues can't solve, whether it's buying books, studying materials all night, or finding other industry experts kneeling down his floor for a night until they can find a solution.

Don't worry about boundaries, or do not care about rights-establish influence without right, hold others' thighs and cry without influence. If you don't know how to establish influence, You can't kneel down, don't be a product manager.

In addition, Do not care too much about harmony. If the goal is to make the right thing happen, then what other people think of us is not important if we are stupid. Don't worry about being unfair. If you want to do something, it's too common to be wronged. Don't feel bitter and bitter all day long and sigh.

"Let the right thing happen one after another" is the only criterion. speaking with the results doesn't matter how much bitter it is. Turn on the desk lamp in the middle of the night, put on your clothes and leave the sleeping girl. In the morning, she opens the door and enters the bathroom, takes out the pliers and needles, gritted her teeth, and removes the warhead from her body. She stitched up the wound and put on her clean clothes. The girl opened her sleepy eyes and asked if you still went well last night? You smiled and gently told her that it was quite smooth.

The other two modifiers in this sentence are "correct" and "successive 」.

"Correctness" is a matter of self-reflection. We can Continually revise and improve our solutions and routes through self-torture or other people's challenges. I have participated in numerous review sessions. There are two types of product managers in the review: one is to resist others' challenges, the other is to resist, or sneer, and the other is to eagerly expect others' challenges, they even joined the peer camp to challenge themselves, improve their ideas, and avoid potential risks.

Which kind of product manager will be even better? If a good product manager knows the error, the product manager will make the mistake, and the product manager will always think that he is right.

"Successive" means step-by-step ability to portray a bright future, and creating a perfect system out of thin air is not difficult. Excellent product managers can seize the current mess, maximize the use of the limited resources and capabilities of the team, and step by step toward the final goal.

I was lucky to have the opportunity to attend a meeting on a senior project. The big boss of the company said, "You product managers like to demolish old houses and build new houses, but we cannot do this 」. At that time, I was not convinced. In the past three years, I thought it was. If there is no down-to-earth route for a bright future, and there is no plan from near to far, there is nothing.

Looking back at the two things at the beginning of the article, as a product manager, I just wanted to "complete my tasks" and thought that the rest was not our task, but the responsibility of others. In the end, not only did you fail, but the entire team also failed. Unfortunately, the product manager is the only culprit in the failure of any product team. There is an old saying: "Success is the success of the team, and failure is the failure of the product manager.

"Let the right things happen one after another" means all the work of the product manager. If you need to understand the technology in this process, you can learn the technology. If you need to understand the interaction, you can learn the interaction, if you need to understand drawing, you can learn drawing. If you need to understand public speaking, you can learn public speaking. If you need to understand XX, you can learn xx. No one in the team can say that this is not my responsibility, but it is not the only product manager.

Do you think it is unfair? Hurry up and move on.

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