How Failure Shaped Product Management
Our industry has evolved and adopted a style of 'best practice' that's well suited to surviving failure.
In "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," Thomas Kuhn explains that science progresses within a prevailing paradigm until accumulating anomalies cause a crisis, leading to a scientific revolution and a new paradigm. This concept of paradigm shifts is not limited to science; it also applies to the world of product development. For years, the prevailing paradigm in product development has been Agile and User-Centred Design. These approaches emphasise iterative development and prioritise user needs, a big improvement on what came before. However, over time, anomalies began to surface. Misaligned business goals, ineffective products, and a focus on outputs rather than outcomes revealed their limitations. This crisis prompted a paradigm shift toward product management. Product management emphasises outcomes over outputs, success metrics, and sustainable value creation.
The role of the product manager is to define the right problems to solve and to ensure that the solutions actually meet the needs of the customers and the business.
Melissa Perri · Escaping the Build Trap
This marks a significant departure from traditional Agile and User-Centred Design approaches. Central to this evolution is the realisation that failure is inevitable in product development.
The crucial insight in Marty Cagan's Inspired echoes this sentiment. He acknowledges that most products and features won't meet expectations, and the ones that do require a lot of iteration to reach that point.
The Law of Market Failure: Failure is the most likely outcome. Most new products fail.
Alberto Savoia · The Right It
There’s a common thread amongst the ‘best practice’ that’s stood the test of time. It works well in environments where our ideas are likely to fail. In that sense it’s antifragile, brutal environments expose the importance of best practice.
Let’s take a look at best practice through a lens of failure. Small batch sizes allow us to learn early and reduce waste. A/B testing helps us quickly identify if we’re achieving the outcome we expect. Opportunity solution trees broaden our perspective and help us avoid focusing on a single solution too early. Continuous discovery ensures product managers constantly understand customer needs and pain points in shifting markets. Product metrics provide data-driven insights into user behaviour, enabling informed decisions and course corrections.
This perspective helps us evaluate new processes or methodologies our colleagues propose. Will their approach survive in a world where we’re likely to fail? If not, then it’s likely a bad idea.
Given the likelihood of failure, product managers need certain traits to be successful. Resilience is crucial, as product managers must bounce back from setbacks and continue driving progress. Humility is equally important, allowing product managers to acknowledge when things aren't working and seek feedback and guidance. Humble product managers are more likely to rely on data, commission research, engage with peers, and avoid jumping to conclusions—all of which lead to better outcomes.
Conclusion.
Product management is the new paradigm for product development and it’s predicated on the realisation that most of our ideas won’t achieve the impact we hoped. As Product Managers face such challenging odds, we must approach our work with humility and resilience.