Product lessons from my polka-dot pup
Five reminders about being a team player from a fur-filled year.
About a year ago we did something crazy and got a second furry friend. He’s gorgeous and goofy and has reminded me of a few things about being a team player.
Play well with others
Watching our two dogs together has been the greatest joy. With a 10-year-old and a puppy, there’s definitely some push-and-pull in their playtime. In fact, when we first brought the little one home, they fought in a ferocious, almost feral, way. We were constantly breaking up the gnawing and gnashing of teeth. Over time, they’ve learned each other’s signals and boundaries and how to play well together. (Perfect example of form, storm, norm, perform.)
Similarly, building and launching products is a team sport. We don’t create anything in Product of value on our own. On the Go-to-Market (GTM) side of the house, Marketing builds pipeline with the Sales team. In R&D, Product Managers and UX Designers are pipeline-builders with Engineering. The biggest difference, though, is that for GTM teams, pipeline generation is a factor of the Win Rate. (The lower your WR, the higher the pipeline multiplier needed.) R&D is expected to have a near 100% “ ” Win Rate. There’s very little room for failure or, put another way, pipeline (i.e., designs and requirements) waste. This makes the ongoing, tight collaboration between the three crucial.
Look up and around
One of the funniest things my dog does is full look-abouts using his long neck. He often hits his head on a cabinet, coffee table, or ottoman doing this. (That part isn’t so funny.)
Tony Fadell encourages “look up and around” curiosity in his book, Build. It can feel most natural to keep focused on what’s directly in front of us.
It’s also important to look up and around. What context do you need? What do other departments need from you to be successful? Ask questions, get feedback, stay curious.
You can set this up in formal cadences (e.g., attending other teams’ meetings, monthly Product Council) or by regularly and informally connecting with key leaders from other areas of the business.
And, of course, talk to your customers!
If you’re in Product and not talking directly to your customers at least once a week, I’d venture to say you’re more of a graphic designer than a UX designer and more of a project manager than a product manager.
Face your fears
Dalmatians are known for being a sensitive breed. Anytime our iRobot is running, our doggy darts into my lap. (By the way, this little vacuum is the main reason we still have our year-round shedding machine.)
While product people have to have a thick skin—we get feedback about designs, roadmap priorities, process, decisions, requirements from everyone—we are also pretty sensitive, too.
Whatever you fear about feedback, facing it is the only way to grow. Take an opportunity this week to think about what is currently holding you back as a team member. (What has you stuck in the safety of the couch?) Consider asking your manager and peers for help creating a plan to start taking steps in a new direction.
Get support
Getting support from your team can look like this …
Or this …
Or any of these …
Product people are generally ambitious, creative, and adaptive. We’re also independent self-starters. Sometimes we need a reminder to reach out and get support from our teams. And, of course, we can be supportive of others. When’s the last time you asked someone, “What are you working on and how can I help?”
We also need community. Here are a few ways to create it for yourself:
Join or start a Product Guild at work.
Join a Product community group or start your own.
Connect with others on LinkedIn. Here are some of the top Product thought leaders I follow:
From these folks, you can follow the people they follow and comment on and then the people those people follow, and on and on.
Side note: In 2023, this ^ can be a more useful list than “What books do you recommend?” Also, check out my Recommendations section on Substack.
Stand in the sun
Cats curl up in sunlight streaming through the window. My older dog enjoys lying on the concrete sidewalk, soaking in afternoon rays. I catch my puppy most often standing in the sunlight, like this.
“Stand in the sun” for Product I think means “Work in the open.”
Be as transparent as possible with your team by getting comfortable with work-in-progress and being willing to share the messy parts of what you’re delivering. Tools like Notion, G-Suite, Figma, and Productboard make this even easier. But it’s also a culture you can help drive in your product teams.
Embrace imperfection. Allow even your unfinished work to shine.
Growing into your polka dots
When we decided on Dalmatian as the breed for our next family dog, we contacted the only two breeders in our state. They sent us images of their litters. All the other puppies had more spots. We weren’t sure if this little guy looked “Dalmatian enough.” Now, of course, that worry seems silly. Partly because his growth revealed bigger and more spots and also because we don’t just associate him with his breed anymore. We think of him as a member of our family.
Every Product person looks different and comes from a different background. It takes all of us time to “grow into our polka dots.” With that growth, it becomes less about being “Product enough” and more about being a really good team member.
These five reminders are ways to continue bettering ourselves as teammates:
Play well with others.
Look up and around.
Face your fears.
Get support.
Stand in the sun.
