Product Management is demanding: indeed, as we have seen in this article, multiple time dimensions have to be managed, combining with multidimensional complexity (product, company and environments). DELETE LINKS after article
Added to this is the management of uncertainty inherent in the role. Indeed, the Product Manager is constantly evolving in a climate of uncertainty: this uncertainty is at its greatest at the start of a project, and diminishes as decisions are made and feedback received. The role involves managing risks, while avoiding the mistakes associated with haste and inaction. It requires the ability to question and adjust plans in the face of internal or external contingencies. Agility, with its practices centered on collaboration and adaptation, offers invaluable tools for reducing uncertainty. Being a good Product Manager requires humility, resilience, and a strong mindset to face the many challenges.
As a reminder, a Product Manager covers vast and diverse fields of intervention (see a summary of the role here : Choosing a Product Manager is the key to success).
A little schizophrenia to avoid the pitfalls of uncertainty
As we have seen, uncertainty is the most notable feature of a Product Manager's working environment. Some parameters are unclear or unknown, and those that are known can change at any moment.
The Product Manager therefore seeks to transform the unknown into the known.
But to really excel, he must doubt these certainties. But he is precisely in the opposite energy mode, busy turning hypotheses into certainties.
The fundamental questioning of his activities can be summed up as follows: "What I think I know: is it really a reliable, proven foundation? What data or feedback do I have in the field to prove it?"
At the same time as fixing the known, the Product Manager doubts, so as not to miss any unexpected avenues of value creation: it's off the beaten track that the seeds of innovation are most often to be found.
This is particularly difficult because a large proportion of our certainties are, in fact, hypotheses that we have, without deciding, or being really aware of it, transformed into certainties.
Can we be sure of our certainties?
This is particularly difficult, because many of our certainties are implicit: they are allants-de-soi, elements so well established that we wouldn't think of questioning them.
They are an integral part of our mental reference decor.
Here is a schematic representation of these categories:
Hence the importance of being open-minded in this role, so as to hear unexpected information. When I've run business workshop/Product Manager sessions, I've often witnessed sequences of denial. Unless you're a very seasoned Product Manager, it's hard to hear something that's outside your field of possibilities.
For example, when the business shares an unexpected topic, the Product Manager is literally "deaf": he ignores this nugget, and goes back to a completely different question!
It's at times like these that the coach reveals his usefulness to Product Managers.
So, one of the qualities of the Product Manager is this immense humility backed up by enough tranquillity. This is what enables the Product Manager, even if he thinks he knows, to always remain vigilant, and to accept that reality may differ from what he thought he understood (with all his expertise).
This ability to question oneself is extremely demanding and difficult. In this respect, see for example: the Product Manager's nightmare in this article.
And in your company, how do you train and coach your Product Managers? How do you help them to develop, exercise and reinforce the skills they need to succeed?
