Stefan
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Key points of the post:
- Parallelism of tasks comes at a cost, and is sometimes infeasible. Watch your surroundings to anticipate key dependencies that enable parallelism, or prevent it from being a viable option.
- Prepare for the knowns, and for the unknowns. Carrying a little extra overhead can pay off, especially in early stages. Playing and catering for multiple scenarios makes it easier to adjust and let go of previous predictions when the times comes.
- Every challenge has an intrinsic component (inward facing challenges), and an extrinsic component (competition against others). Staying positive and providing encouragement for oneself (the team), while embracing the external challenge (other teams, other product areas) can lead to successful and motivating outcomes even if we don’t end up in ‘first place’.
- Frame the remainder of the race as a positive, every step gets you closer to the end point.
On Sunday I had another ‘first’, something I have not done before: a mountain trail half marathon. Since I started this blog, every time I am doing something these days I can’t help but relate all if it back to the question: What does this experience mean in context of Product Management?
Sometimes, there is no room to run things in parallel
We all know it, but it is still an art to be able to anticipate it: parallelization of tasks comes at a cost. Sometimes, the cost is very high. When you run a trail run, sometimes you get to narrow passages, and you can’t overtake, or push ahead. Your only option is to stay in line, adjust your pace, benefit by gathering and preserving energy. How well this picture later itself out in front of me, through slippery rocks to the left, a narrow passages ahead, and steep cliffs to the right. This wasn’t a time to attempt a rash move, as any realized gain would be small, and the risk incredibly high.
Preparation is key, and staying flexible
There will always be elements we can’t control. For the run, one of the most important ones is weather, and trail / run conditions. This run was 80% non-asphalt, which means conditions can influence the experience a whole lot more. Wet asphalt is different from a wet Rocky hiking trail. Boy, that stuff can get slippery. Another key effect weather and temperature has in on the gear we select to run with. When I arrived, it was cold, windy, and started to rain. Very different from what I had anticipated: sunny, dry, and no wind. I had packed for a variety of scenarios, so I was fine in the end. It wasn’t easy to adjust course, as I had to admit I was wrong in my prediction (that is never easy), but since I prepared I could.give myself kudos for coming prepared.
You run your race, they run theirs
Probably one of the most impactful takeaways for every runner is the ability to acknowledge your intrinsic challenge without casting judgement to other runners. This is sometimes hard, and takes time. We need to learn to accept the challenge objectively, and our performance with kindness, and avoid judgement at all cost. Intrinsically this is sometimes the hardest, as we might want to push ourselves. Judgement can be perceived as a motivator, but it doesn’t have the longevity needed. If you feel you want to encourage yourself, stay positive and remain kind to yourself. This is the proven way to drive better results.
Celebrate milestones to drive your motivation
On a run we have a course map, and a very predictable set of events. If it is not the first time we are doing this, we will likely know when we need to slow it down, and when we can crank it up a little. Sometimes it can be crucial to celebrate milestones. This helps ground ourselves in the fact that every step gets us closer to the end. One tactic I like to apply is to frame the remainder of the race as if I would start this leg right now. At mile 8 I tell myself things like: “Just another quick 5 miler to go, easy, it is going to be a bliss.”
There are plenty of more parallels between running, or other sports for that matter, and product management. Tell me your favorite analogy in the comments.
