Bias toward action 💥

It says on my blog ’15+ years in product Management’. But that isn’t true. I have felt the product blood run in my veins way sooner than that. Growing up surrounded by people who build things, as a son of a carpenter, and a grandson to a carpenter, building things fascinated me like nothing else.

Building things runs in my veins

One day my aunt brought a laundry bag system to our home. She brought it from Germany, Austria’s ‘big neighbor’ and a place with about 10x the market size. This laundry system was it. My mum was talking about it for weeks. When it arrived, and this was before IKEA was a thing, I was dying to built it up. My mum wouldn’t let me. At 10 years old there was a trust imbalance. Of course I was the most competent laundry system builder the world has seen. Why wouldn’t my mum think so? Hasn’t she seen all the Lego constructions I came up with?

Well, as I also had inherited some of the stubbornness from my dad, and some of the wit from my great-graddad, I did the only thing I knew to do: I signaled to my mum that I would comply, told her I’ll bring the packet with the laundry bag system into the bathroom, and then locked myself in the bathroom. Not sure why, not sure what made me do it. I locked the door from the inside, quietly, and looked at my treasure. Now it was time to roll up my sleeves.

Putting the system together was easy. I don’t remember any of it. Only that there was little plastic connectors between metal tubes. I remember feeling so confident, looking at the picture, and knowing how to go about each step, even without looking at the instruction manual. You had to slide the metal tubes through the fabric just right, so it would give structure and support to the cloth laundry bags. There were 3 separate compartments for different temperatures, so you could pre-categorize the laundry. They had different colors. It was a nifty product, and easy to assemble.

Threading the needle between parental pride, and getting grounded

Then I slowly opened the door again. My mum and dad were busy chatting with my aunt and uncle who had just arrived from a long road trip. They weren’t paying attention. So I slowly walked up to the kitchen, looking all swagger and stuff. I had the packaging of the box in my hand, neatly folding it together, and then threw is casually in the trash bin next to our fireplace. I tried to hide my excitement so bad. With all the coolness I could muster i said to my mum and everyone: it’s done. Quite a nice system, too.

Then I waited. First it seemed no one knew what I was talking about. Then my mum looked over my head into the bathroom and saw the finished piece. She burst out laughing. She looked at me, and I saw in her eyes the pride of anmum who’s son just did something she didn’t thing he would be able to do. I grew, right in front of her, and every parent enjoys that. But the words didn’t compute: well, that wasn’t what I had asked you to do. I guess someone is grounded.

I wasn’t grounded for long, and my.mum could hide her joy long either. So all turned out for the better. But this experience was incredibly impressive to me. To this say, when there is hesitancy in taking action, I quote this story to my family as an example where bias toward Action brought something so positive.

Take Action 🎬

📅 Book a private coaching session with me to grow your PM career. I will share my 15+ years of experience as a Product Manager, all my learning and pitfalls, with actionable tips and concrete lessons to model after.

📚 To learn the foundations of Product Management, I recommend reading INSPIRED by Marty Cagan. Marty has been leading the Silicon Valley Product Group for over two decades. His work is foundational for Tech Product Managers – a must read.

📚 To learn how to start with Why, I recommend Start with Why, by Simon Sinek. Simon is a genius when it comes to articulating the factors which will forever transform how your team thinks about purpose. If you struggle converting your group to a team of doers, instill more motivation, and truly transform the way you work together, this is the book for you.

📚 For iterative product discovery, check out Continuous Discovery Habits, by Teresa Torres. It presents a structured & scalable approach to continuous product discovery which will enable you and your team to act.