Product Proverb #2: First thing(s) first
Many articles and books have been written about prioritization frameworks for product managers. This is not one of them.
This is an article about why prioritization is an essential product management skill. PMs should spend most of their time prioritizing. At all times they should be able to name the “one thing” that they focus on.
What are the strategic opportunities? Which chunk of the market should we grab first? What are the top customer requests we have to address to improve customer sentiment? What problems do we have to solve to cut support costs? Which features should we ship before others? Which bugs should we fix first? These and many other questions are PMs’ daily bread.
As product managers, we use many scoring systems, prioritization frameworks, and tools. This is the first skill to get in the product management space. I am not concerned about product managers not knowing the importance of prioritization. Yet, we are all guilty of the same sin — there have too many priorities.
Priority is singular
I was struck reading this in “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown:
The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s we pluralized it and started talking about priorities. Illogically we reasoned, that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow we would now have multiple “first” things.
The reality of building products is complex. There are plenty of decisions that you have to make. There are various market opportunities you can pursue. There are all the problems customers ask you to address. Product backlogs can only get longer.
To harness this complexity we have created prioritized lists and started talking about our top priorities.
It is worth challenging yourself and bringing your priority back to its singular roots. Product managers should always be able to name the one thing they would invest in as a priority. Number two, there, four come next.
A product roadmap is not the only context for prioritization
As product managers, we are accountable for product strategy and roadmap. Whenever we are asked about priorities, we instinctively respond with the product context.
There are however many more contexts, to which PMs have to apply their prioritization lens:
- Which stakeholders do I engage with first and spend the most time with?
- Which projects need my focus? (It is not necessarily the top priority project. Sometimes a PM has the most impact engaging in a project that is further down the list.)
- Which data do ask my data analyst for first? Which research questions do I need answers to?
We are prioritizing on many different levels. Let’s not underestimate these other contexts. On a meta-level, PMs have to prioritize across these contexts as well!
Prioritize making a call over making the best call
Last but not least, when it comes to prioritizing I always ask my team to focus on making a decision over making the best decision. We can never judge our decision otherwise than through outcomes. And the outcomes come from actions.
There is a fine line between jumping into something too early and getting stuck in analysis-paralysis mode. If I had to choose one, I would choose the former.
The more time you spend collecting evidence to help you make the call, the more time you waste before learning what your decision will result in.
When making decisions, follow this process:
- focus on the pieces of information you need to make a call; based on first principles, cut down the list to a minimum ;
- make a decision as soon as you gather your top-priority data;
- make a decision, communicate it, and execute on it;
- measure results;
- adjust your direction if needed;
- repeat.
“First thing(s) first” is a good product manager motto in many different situations. Being able to collect information, draw conclusions, and make decisions is our unique superpower.
Take it to the next level and always be ready to decide what is the one thing you should focus on. What comes as your number one?
This is a mini-series about general truths that are particularly helpful for product managers. Enriched with a set of tips and tricks. Other articles in the series:
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I write about product management and leadership, adding a slight (or not so slight) personal touch to my stories. See you around!
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