Product Shaping & Hanger
My hanger, mild anger prompted by hunger, is infamous. When I’m at home and feel hungry, the right first move is invariably to open the fridge. If you’re extremely hungry, it’s more efficient to just look at what’s in the fridge rather than start by searching for idealized recipes online. Realistically, you aren’t going to take the time to go to the store anyways, so figure out what you have first, and make the best of it.
This is often the most effective method of building Product. I‘ve mostly worked for small startups racing against time to build enough valuable product to survive. In those situations, it’s better to learn-by-doing than to theorize in that environment.
Not everyone works for start-ups though. Companies with more market share focus less on time to release and more on reducing errors and including additional features. Keeping with the analogy of finding food, this is like planning for a dinner party. As quality becomes more important, you are forced to make time to go to the store. It’s better than the reaction you’ll get if you serve your in-laws re-heated pizza topped by whatever’s left in the produce drawer.
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John Cutler pleads with us to stop going for the leftovers. He tries to show the beauty of planning out the perfect dinner in The Beautiful Mess. He uses a metaphor of organizing by dumping everything onto the floor to describe his product discovery/shaping process. His post assures us this this technique is different from analysis-paralysis where the action never actually take place. The post is well written but it’s hard not to come away thinking it comes from a place of personal frustration.
As someone who has pushed for speed, his argument makes me feel slightly guilty. When constraints allow, it’s so deeply satisfying to throw everything on the ground and create a new way of understanding it. If this is your default way of making sense of things, power to you! It’s a way of gaining truly deep understanding of an area. Two pieces of advice:
- Don’t show this process to a group
- Set expectations for it with your stakeholders.
When you’re organizing a room, the last thing you want is six fraternity brothers coming into it. They will move whatever you’re organizing around and add their own stuff to the mix. Even if they are trying to be helpful, keep them out! One or two collaborators can be great with helping organize thoughts. Groups have diverse viewpoints that are terrific for generating new ideas, or finding holes in organized concepts. You do not want to use them for organizing if you can. Rather, once you have your understanding mostly set up, have a group help you find gaps in it, which you can find solutions to on your own. Good luck!
