Redefining Deadlines: The Unpopular Tool in Product Management
We often see deadlines as something that belongs in the world of Projects. But there's room for it in Product Management.
In the realm of product management, deadlines are as well-loved as a bad internet connection on a Monday morning. They're often synonymous with stress, late-night coffee-fueled coding sessions, and tension so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
No PM enjoys asking “Well? Are we almost done?”
But what if I told you that this vilification of deadlines was, well, misplaced?
We need to change our lenses when viewing deadlines. Let’s consider the difference between hard and soft deadlines. The former is often perceived as a management's ploy to maintain a facade of productivity. But is that the real purpose of deadlines? Or can we repurpose them into a compass that guides us to how well we're communicating and synchronizing our efforts inside and cross teams?
The Missteps with Deadlines
Now, let's dig a little deeper. Picture this: not too long ago, I saw the CEO of an early stage startup swoop in one day and request a messaging feature to be developed ASAP. One PM began to explain that messaging was something that would take months and months of work. Maybe two quarters of dedicated work.
A more senior Product Manager in the team, with a more pragmatic outlook and a closer grasp of the actual work involved, made three different observations based on the deadline discussion
Here are a few insights gleaned from this scenario:
Lost in Translation: Both the CEO and the PM were clearly not talking about the same thing. It's one thing to disagree on how something should be implemented, but a vast difference in delivery timeframe suggests that there is a misalignment on what is being built.
Skipping the Root Cause: Instead of figuring out how long it would take to build the feature, the PM should have posed a question to the CEO: "What problem are you trying to solve?" Responses here generally fall into one of two buckets: either it's a case of "I want this feature, no compromises" or a specific KPI is feeling the heat. Note: It's very common in early stage startups to see “I want this feature” requests simply because there isn't data + org structure to shift into quantitive backed features.
Culture Check: The manner in which a company handles deadlines can be a pretty accurate barometer of its Product culture. Are we running after tangible outcomes or just chasing outputs?
Enter the soft deadline: The Underutilized Hero of Product Management
So, what's the panacea to this hard deadline predicament? Enter, soft deadlines.
Product leadership needs to pivot towards soft deadlines that focus on problem-solving, rather than output generation. For example, set a goal to lower the number of abandoned shopping carts by 10% in the next month.
In this approach, we cleverly invoke Parkinson's law (work expands or contracts according to the deadline) - but instead of applying it to the solution, we focus it on the problem. This method ensures that the most efficient solutions are brainstormed and executed within the designated timeframe. This also prompts the team to ask harder questions instead of simply accepting a feature request.
Soft deadlines, instead of being stress-inducing ticking time bombs, become a tool for alignment, fostering clear communication, and spurring innovation. They encourage teams to mull over the problem, collaborate, and find the best possible solution within the prescribed timeline.
When employed correctly, deadlines can help steer your team towards a successful, timely resolution. Remember, a deadline is merely a timeline - it's up to us to determine how it's drawn.
🌎 Interesting links from the web
DOAC: Interview with Mo Gawdat, former chief business officer for Google X, on all things AI. A lot of content has been produced on the subject, but this has been in my opinion the most thoughtful and accessible conversation on the subject. Wouldn't hesitate to share this with friends and family who don't work in tech.
If you've been using Arc Browser recently, you may have heard of a new feature called Boosts. Boosts allow the user to edit anything on a webpage, from changing styling to removing entire parts of a website. Someone created ArcBoosts, a one stop shop to find the best Boosts. “Clean Gmail” is my favorite.
In social psychology, there is a term called “The Pratfall Effect” where you become more likeable by recognizing and owning up to your mistakes. Oatly, a well known company that produces alternatives to dairy products from oats, leveraged the Pratfall effect and produced a really compelling website owning up to all of their past mistakes. They even went so far to create FckFckOatly as well.
A camera that uses context (location) and AI to generate "photo" of a specific place and moment
Replika: Your money or your wife
Just like the first iPhone's accelerometer enabled a plethora of “beer apps” AI seems to be leading the way in virtual relationships. You might have seen several ads (mostly on IG) about them, with the most notorious being Replika AI which created a virtual girlfriend you could chat with. The most popular usecase, is you guessed it: sexting. With increasingly more explicit interactions the Replika team decided to deactivate the feature leading to a massive backlash from the community who felt their emotional investment in their 'reps' was invalidated. Lots of interesting highlights on the ethical implications of AI relationships and the unavoidable emotional fallouts
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