“Product management is about insights and judgement, both of which require a sharp mind. Hard work is also necessary, but for this job, it is not sufficient.” Marty Cagan, Inspired
Working in diverse product ecosystems with diverging needs from system implementation to full-blown experience transformation, my Product Lens is grounded on three key tenets:
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Think Like a Scientist (or, more specifically, a Behavioral Economist)
My product lens is heavily influenced by the work of Behavioral Economists including Richard Thaler, Amos Tversky, and Daniel Kahneman. From Revealed Preferences to Perverse Incentives, this quirky toolkit helps me optimize my products and teams.
Why does it matter? Thinking through the BE perspective ensures my products are uniquely designed to motivate user behavior while meeting their needs seamlessly.
My Favorite Use Case: Successfully ensuring accounts in a B2B Community used professional usernames without building censorship architecture or re-writing an international EULA.
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Lead Like You Mean It
Product teams move fast and decisions need to be made constantly: prioritization, resource allocation, and experimentation are core pillars of the job. But RICE, MoSCoW, JTBD, etc. all focus on the product, not the producers. Magic happens when we lead effectively and empathize with users and teams alike.
Why does it matter? Having the courage to pivot, knowing people are a long term investment, and ensuring openness to new opportunities are core to my product lens.
My Favorite Use Case: Building an international employee coalition to embrace and evangelize a controversial product redesign (resulting in record-high CSAT and NPS)!
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Ambiguity is Opportunity
Data is critical to any product, but data never tells the whole story. The third element of my product lens is finding innovative ways to identify and solidify opportunities amid highly complex, ambiguous problem spaces.
Why does it matter? I thrive in creating order from ambiguity and challenging the status quo, relying on strong business acumen and enthusiastic curiosity to gain buy-in from partners and leaders alike.
My Favorite Use Case: Turning the “battleship” Home Depot’s perspective on Pros from transactional to transformational in only two years, resulting in a 150% increase in funding direct from the executive leadership team and adoption of my multi-year product strategy.
