Product Managers develop the insight to know when their team is stuck before it happens. This includes seeing blockers before they are officially on your radar and being able to remove them while limiting noise. Above all, PM's need to ask the right questions and be able to create a framework for decision making coupled with a prioritization methodology to drive good decisions. This all leads to analytical problem solving.
I like to think the following definition is a good starting point.
Analytical problem solving is the ability to form an objective solution to a complex problem using facts and logic.
An effective critical thinker will be able to clearly form logical relations between data points and ideas. Being a product manager you will be faced with ambiguous problems daily. It will be your job to recognize when there is a problem and how to apply structure to it that will lead to a winning solution.
💁♀️ Tip: Do not solve a problem based off of intuition. Analyze the data and form a solution.
Types of Ambiguous Problems
Exploratory Problems 👩🌾
Exploratory problems are free rein and as a PM you will need to apply structure and vertically slice these problems like you would a user story. Exploratory Problems are the "how to" and "why" questions that need answers.
Exploratory Problems: a question or problem without a potential answer.
💁♀️ Tip: Don't forget to bring people into the loop so they can share their thoughts and possibly add additional slices to your equation.
Although exploratory problems are very broad you can still apply structure. For example, if you needed to brainstorm ways to increase brand awareness a few ways to slice this would be...
- Potential users vs current users: How can you increase the number of referrals from existing users versus getting new followers
- Increase awareness: Consider small vs big initiatives that can be made
- Create value: Consider current value of product vs potential value
- Target Personas: Consider current customers vs potential customers
Brainstorming the problem by breaking it down into buckets and then subsets will help to solve the problem in a constructive way by providing an analytical approach to an obscure/convoluted problem. Once, you have sliced your problem into various buckets with possible solutions you have arrived at decision making.
Decision-making problems 👩⚖️
Exploratory problems are more ambiguous and decision making problems are more straightforward. Although in both circumstances a decision is never easy. I believe exploratory problems up front have more unknowns than the decision making problems that are driven by "to do" or "not to do" or "yes" or "no" answers to solutions.
Once you get to the decision making problem you will have options for possible solutions. With both exploratory and decision making problems it's useful to simplify the problem down to its core issue. When dealing with ambiguous problems it can create for information anxiety allowing for analysis/paralysis to take over so by identifying the core issue to the problem it will help alleviate some of the stress. One way to do this is by providing structure at a categorical level as opposed to an individual level.
- Risk vs reward
- Low cost vs high cost
- Effort vs bare minimum
- Short-term benefit vs long-term benefit
- Growth focused vs revenue focused
Decision-making problems are possible solutions, but there isn't a definitive answer. For example, will you build a new product or buy a new product. This is a clear approach with available solutions.
The goal is to simplify the problem down to its core by asking "how to" and "why" then ask if it's worth it which can be backed by data.
Don't delegate Data ❌
As a PM it's important to have your finger on the pulse at all times. This includes being in the weeds when it comes to data. The best decisions you will make as a product manager are data driven and since the success of a product relies solely on you those decisions are vital. Don't leave it to someone else to determine the success of your product. It's important to not delegate this important part of the decision making process and make sure that you have done the fact gathering yourself.
Triage Bugs
Once a product is launched it's inevitable that bugs will happen and when they do it's up to you to prioritize what gets fixed. This is no easy task and you will need to define the importance of a bug and the opportunity cost of working or not working on a particular bug.
It's important to consider the following guidelines when prioritizing which bugs get worked on.
- Impact to users: This should always be considered before anything else. How is this affecting user experience? Are they exposed to security risk? Can they lose important data? How many users are affected or exposed to the bug?
- Impact to company: Will this bug cause damage to the company's reputation? Will goals and strategy be affected?
- Impact on metrics: Will this bug have a large impact on company metics? Is it hurting cost or could it potentially hurt revenue? It it creating a large number of support tickets?
- Ease of fixing: Is it easy to fix or is it time consuming?
- Now vs later: Should the bug be fixed now? If you wait what will that cost in the future?
- Opportunity cost: What is the cost and benefit of working on a bug now compared to working on new work
A part of the skillset of a product manager is to be an analytical problem solver. By being at the front line of triaging bugs this is one way to flex those analytical problem solving muscles. As a product manager it's important to understand each bug that comes in and resolve them quickly.
Systems Thinking 🤔💻
One of the most important parts of being a product manager is being able to have foresight into how different parts of a product/company are connected and to make the correct decisions in regards to how these interconnected parts affect each other. This is referred to as systems thinking.
The choices and decisions you make will ultimately have an impact on other parts of the system. This is why it's necessary to make informed choices.
Systems thinking requires a shift in mindset, away from linear to circular. The fundamental principle of this shift is that everything is interconnected. -UN School
This means you will need to understand the technical aspects of a product and how it is built so that you can answer and ask the right questions to deliver business viable solutions for your customers.
For example, imagine you need a new feature built involving better search capabilities for users. As a PM you are thinking typeahead search capabilities fed through an elastic search engine, but your engineer lets you know that he has found a way to save time by using a workaround that doesn't use an elastic search engine. Of course as a PM you want to save time and this seems like a simple 'no brainer,' to eliminate the elastic search component.
Unfortunately, the engineer did not mention that if you bypass this capability and build it out differently that it would create tech debt in the future by limiting search capabilities. Not to mention a subpar user experience as users will need to know exactly what they are searching for.
To avoid any potential issues having a thorough understanding of how a system works and how all the parts connect will be beneficial to optimize success of the product.
Interconnected parts to think about
- Product Functionality: Will this new feature impact existing functionality? (e.g. search, notifications, provisioning)
- Design Functionality: If this feature is implemented will it work in other parts of the product? Will it affect current design?
- Platform Functionality: Will this new feature provide the same experience for users on mobile, desktop, tablet?
- Future Functionality: If this change(s) is implemented will it create new challenges for the future?
Ultimately, the best way to become a master systems thinker is to understand the infrastructure of the product(s) you lead. Sitting down with the architectural team will help you better understand the infrastructure, how things connect, and where interdependencies lie.
Be insatiably curious 🧐
Having a natural curiosity is a key component to being an excellent problem solver. It is one of the main attributes to being a great product manager because being naturally curious allows you to better relate to your users and understand their needs. One of the key tricks in being naturally curious is predictability. Call yourself Ms. Cleo (or Mr.) and start to predict the outcome of what you expect.
A few ways to do this can be through...
- Data: before looking at any type of data whether experimental, churn rate, monthly recurring revenue, retention, etc. try to predict what the numbers will be
- Interactions: before you sit down and talk with someone or attend a meeting try to predict the outcome of the meeting and how each person reacts
Create and communicate Frameworks 🗣
It is crucial to be able to communicate your decisions when deciding what to build and what will be worked on next. Being able to create and convey your frameworks will be essential for your team and products success. This can only happen by implicating a framework that coincides with organizational goals.
Once your frameworks are in place it's extremely important to articulate your logic behind the decisions that you make. This shows tenacity, consistency, and strategy behind your decisions. As a product manager everything comes down to approach and delivery. Let's not forget that by articulating your framework you are conveying your strategy.
Your framework is your approach and your delivery is how and why you made your decisions.
Benefits of articulating frameworks
- Efficiency: Having a set framework or a few frameworks in place create for quick and easier decision making not only for you, but your teammates as well as your framework(s) can lay the foundation for decisions going forward
- Credibility: Your teammates and cross-functional teams will learn to trust the decisions you make because they'll be able to see the context and logic behind it
- Improved Decision Making: It will be easier to make decisions because your framework will quickly point out what works and what doesn't
- Greater Optimization: Frameworks allow for easier and more swift decision making through structured thinking
Final Words 📖
As an analytical problem solver developing decision making capabilities by reasoning with facts and logic will help to deeply understand customer needs. This allows you to get to the core issue of a problem so you can find the solution. The great part about this is that you don't need to solve every problem by yourself. Getting buy-in from team members/leadership will further ensure success of the product and show that you are a team player that people want to work with.
Remember as a product manager it's your job to know your customers very well and be able to deliver on their desires. This makes it very important to gather the information yourself and not delegate it as it can be difficult to deliver an appropriate solution if you assign data tracking to someone else.
Always think about opportunity cost especially when triaging bugs. Sometimes the answer is straight forward, but in certain situations you may need to probe deeper to make the correct decision. Pay attention and learn infrastructure as Systems design is so important when making critical decisions as they can impact the product and teams further down the road.
Lastly, communication and being able to articulate your frameworks show your thought process and logic behind important decisions that you make. In addition, it gains trust among your peers as they feel more comfortable when they understand what drives your decision.
Next Steps 🚀
- Approaching exploratory and decision-making problems
- Prioritizing Bugs
- Systems Thinking
- Communication Hacks