
I had my review where the clear improvement area that was marked for me was that I should be more strategic. 

First of all, it feels like a gut punch when you get a feedback like that because in my head I kept thinking, so they see me as a mule, who can take the load to a direction pointed to but not choose the direction. Fair enough. I should REALLLY work on this. The problem is - I have no clue whatsoever this "being more strategic" means. But I should, don't want to stay a mule.

Fortunately as I was wrestling with this problem, I found [this blog post](https://manassaloi.com/2020/12/09/how-to-be-strategic.html) from my reading list. Same problems being faced by other PMs gives me solace. 

## I've identified these root causes in my workflow which might cause this
- I genuinely never sit and write down the strategy for my charter 
	- primarily because my charter keeps changing 🥲
	- but also because I "implicitly" know what needs to be done. It probably sounded like a good thing, but is not. Implicit means I might be delusion-ed into thinking that their is a plan while there is not
- I also don't actually work on my craft anymore
	- I've stopped reading blogs or articles or books on product management. Probably because I found the ideas very generic. Sigh. 
	- But maybe because I don't know what I am looking to improve. So this one is on me too. 🙈
- I don't ask questions or more specifically don't question people of authority
	- This is a personality quirk I need to fix.

## How do I act on a this?
1. Create a charter doc, create a north star, plan OKRs. [Basically be better at documentation](https://www.vedantlohbare.com/notes/writing-is-thinking) (In many ways this blog is part of this exercise)
2. Read more books on product management, read on fintech in general also
	- Slightly difficult to achieve. But I have a starting point. 
	- I am part of a few communities, will ask for book recos.
3. F--k--g think like a head of product. What will Manas Saloi do? Although I don't know him, good heuristic to follow. 

- [x] Will check back on an update on this in a couple of weeks' time 📅 2023-12-20 ✅ 2024-07-25






Feedback session, get better with strategy.


I have always wondered this about my job before. Lately, I've started thinking of it in this context.
TLDR; I don't know this yet. Maybe there is none.

### See other functions could probably build a MOAT by doing these -

For Developers - they have their OS contributions, building applications, tests to showcase their technical prowess.
For Designers - they can show their portfolios, case-studies, UIs.
For Marketers - camapaigns to show, numbers that were impacted.
For Sales/Business teams - Their network.

Maybe then as I am looking from this lens, you could argue for a product manager the MOAT will be on the products they've launched and numbers that are impacted.
But that is not holistic. Bad product managers can launch decent products and show numbers - depends on the teams that are around them too.

### Is then a good product manager that critical to launching a good product?

Haha, no.

### Does having a good product manager, help you launch a successful product?

I'd say more often than not.

Maybe then the MOAT can be the number of bad products I launched and what I took from that, to ensure that does not happen again.


I have always wondered this about my job before. Lately, I've started thinking of it in this context.

What is a Product manager's moat?


We had recently launched our new app and were eager to see it in the wild (in hands of real users). So we decided to conduct usability tests.

Although the initial target was to conduct 50 tests, we halted the experiment after 25. We had started to see a lot of repeated feedback which we realised should be fixed before we conduct more such tests.

Disclaimer - I do not recommend doing this. It was very tiring going through 25+ 1 hour long calls in a 40 hour work week.

### Why 25 tests in one week!?

I have always considered, talking to users as the weakest part of my PM skill set. And I wanted to get better at it. I had not really conducted proper usability tests for a long time and the ones I conducted were too far in between to give us any serious insights.

So, I forced myself to reach out to users and schedule as many calls as possible. That resulted in my calendar being booked from 7:30 on a Saturday morning to even on some occasions 8:30 in the evenings.

### What did I learn from this experience?

1. I achieved what I set out to do. I think I have now built a better muscle for conducting such tests and actually just talking to users.

2. It is difficult to conduct usability tests remotely. We had to ask users to share screen from their phones so that we all could see the screen they are on.

3. Last but actually the primary purpose of conducting these tests, some pretty glaring misses from us on the usability side.

### Tips for me (and possibly the readers) for future usability tests

1. Create a brief email that can be sent to customers beforehand. In this email, send a link of the app and a small description of what is expected out of them for this experiment.

2. _Set the expectations_ on the call too, before you dive into the tests. I used these pointers for my calls

   - This is just the first version of the app so we can change directions easily
   - Don’t hold back while giving us feedback, we would appreciate you being brutally honest
   - I might ask you questions while you are exploring the application, to better understand your point of view

3. Silence is okay. Don’t rush to fill the silence with your words. Let the user break the silence. They’ll do it, don’t worry. If nothing else they ask “So what’s next?”

4. Record sessions. It might not be easy for you to come back and view all the recordings, but I found myself going back to specific sections in an interview. Might be to revalidate a bug or to confirm the answer to a question.

5. One question that always gave me good insights was this - “On a scale of 1 to 5, how helpful did you find this screen?”
   You should not miss the opportunity to ask a follow up question and understand what made them give that rating.

6. Keep your video on. And have a smile on your face. _Basically act human and not like a scientist observing a lab rat._

7. Thank them always.

8. There are no stupid questions. Answer sincerely and note all of them down.

9. Have someone else take notes, but also have a notebook handy to jot down highlights.


We had recently launched our new app and were eager to see it in the wild

Doing 25 usability tests in a week


On my usual workdays, I am generally found jumping on one call having just left the other.

I work as a product manager and we have around 20 devs and 3 designers working with us. So calls tend to fill up any space available in my schedule.

If I say, "I hate calls", that would be an understatement.

I make an effort to make sure everything is written. Sahil Lavigna, the founder of Gumroad, shared an analogy that I loved and want to live by - Using writing as a cache. [^1]

But still, when it comes to resolving edge cases, 5 - 10 min calls work well. Sometimes, a lot of these calls even last less than a complete minute. Ahh. Frustrating. But I have no authority to mandate to stop requesting calls with me. So I begrudgingly accept this fact - that my workday will be bombarded with these super short calls.

Today, a developer (a new addition to the team) asked me doubt on slack, instead of requesting a call. He was precise with his question and even though it might have collectively taken us longer to frame and answer the question, I considered this a net positive interaction.

There was no context switching, I could easily drop back to the work I was doing after answering his query.
I appreciated that, and I let him know.

That was fun. I don’t know if it is just me but -

### I find it difficult sometimes to appreciate people in a workplace for a personal priority.

I hope he felt good after receiving my appreciation. I certainly did.
I hope from next time onwards, I feel less awkward in doing so.

[^1]: This analogy makes a ton of sense if you are a tech person and understand the basic use of cache. I won’t be able to explain the entire analogy here so click on this link and watch for 3 mins - [video](https://youtu.be/grXrGaT7DLw?t=823)


I find it difficult sometimes to appreciate people in a workplace for a personal priority.

Be lose with appreciations


### Update

This excercise failed. I've since moved to [sprints](/sprints) instead of tracking every hour of my calendar

---

I’ve struggled to understand, over the past year, where do I create value?
I’ve started working full-time as a product manager on a project that is very dear to me.
Product managers do that, don’t they?

### We fall in love with our ideas whilst they are in our heads.

We keep a product/feature idea in our head and romanticise the thoughts till it’s time to write the spec document. Then once the spec is written it meets the eyes of people (other than the ones that reside in your head) and that’s when all hell breaks loose.

> Every one has a plan, till they get punched in their face. - Mike Tyson

_Your baby isn’t yours anymore._ I have come to terms with creating a product that has inputs from many stakeholders.

### What should I be optimising for?

But then what is my value to the team.

1. Will I be judged on the merits of my initial spec, which was forced into multiple iterations?
2. Or will I be judged on the success of the app launch, which is dependent on infinite factors, most of which are outside of my control.

I don’t have the answer.
Experienced PMs, like [Lenny](https://twitter.com/ahuja_karan/status/1370181083224961027?s=20) and [Shreyas](https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1276956836856393728?s=20) think a PM’s job it to be an enabler. Which I admit, I had not considered.

_Side-note:_ Please follow [Lenny](https://twitter.com/lennysan) and [Shreyas](https://twitter.com/shreyas?s=20) on Twitter if you haven’t already.

### Is enabling just a fancy word for “Lets get on a call”?

I hate meetings. I still do. I romanticise the idea of deep work. To think deeply of a product and make it the best in the world. Like the architect in [Fountainhead](https://aynrand.org/novels/the-fountainhead/).

But that is a fairy tale. One product manager cannot make an out-of-the-world application.
That requires the full strength of the entire team.

That is why a product manager’s primary role is to be an enabler.
That is how I’ve started to quantify my value to my team.

> “How good have I been in removing the roadblocks for my team?”

To be honest, I am still unsure about how to become a better product manager.

## New things I’m doing

My calendar is now filled with two colours.

1. Purple - Time spent on enabling/removing blockers
2. Orange - Tasks I had planned to create a product.

![Calendar](/blog-images/calendar.png)

### What will I do with the data?

No clue. I am just collecting data at this point. Let’s see how much is purple and how much is orange, and also see how much impact I’ve created.


I’ve struggled to understand, over the past year, where do I create value?