What do you do if your confidence wavers when making difficult decisions as a product manager?

When uncertain about a decision, seeking feedback is invaluable. Engage with team members, stakeholders, or mentors to gather diverse perspectives without relinquishing decision-making authority. For instance, when deciding on a new product feature, consulting with customer support, marketing, and development teams can offer insights on user needs, market impact, and technical feasibility. By incorporating varied viewpoints, you can make informed decisions that consider all aspects thoroughly. Embracing feedback as a strength fosters collaboration and inclusivity in product development, leading to well-rounded and successful outcomes.

When your confidence wavers in making tough decisions as a product manager, actively seek feedback. Use the 360-Degree Feedback framework to gather insights from all stakeholders involved: peers, direct reports, and supervisors. This holistic view provides diverse perspectives on the decision at hand, helping you see angles you might have missed. Integrating this feedback can bolster your confidence by ensuring your decision is well-informed and considering multiple viewpoints. Decision-making is a skill honed over time, and leveraging collective wisdom is a powerful way to strengthen it.

Agree feedback is important but if you need to make decisions which impact your confidence - seeking feedback is not always a good lever. You need to learn to be okay and defensible with views that are not shared by everyone. Obviously listen to everyone, take their perspective in consideration but make your own educated guesses. You are the only person who knows the product best.

In situations where confidence wavers while making challenging decisions as a product manager, adhere to the following protocol: engage with all stakeholders to gather comprehensive feedback and anticipate potential issues, leverage available data and metrics to bolster your case, seek guidance from senior professionals who may offer valuable insights from their experiences, and ultimately, trust your intuition after thorough reflection and consideration of all factors. Conclusively, maintaining confidence is paramount in effectively communicating the objectives of the change and its implementation to others. I do multiple deep dive sessions with my team, stakeholders and engineers. This gives me a 360 degree picture of the outcome.

If your confidence wavers when making difficult decisions as a product manager: 1. Seek input and advice from colleagues or mentors. 2. Focus on data and evidence to inform decisions. 3. Review past successes to boost confidence. 4. Break down decisions into manageable steps. 5. Consider the worst-case scenario and have a contingency plan. 6. Trust your intuition and instincts. 7. Embrace uncertainty as part of the process. 8. Practice self-compassion and acknowledge any self-doubt. 9. Visualize success to reinforce confidence. 10. Take action and be prepared to adapt as needed.

When confidence in decision-making wavers, turn to data analysis. Employ the Data-Driven Decision-Making (3DM) framework to objectively assess the situation. Gather relevant data, analyze trends and patterns, and use these insights to inform your decision. This approach reduces uncertainty by relying on empirical evidence rather than intuition alone. By making decisions grounded in data, you not only boost your confidence but also enhance the credibility of your choices among stakeholders. A well-informed decision is a confident one.

If data analysis leads to further indecision, consider adopting a "fail fast" mentality. Make an informed decision with the available data, launch a minimum viable product (MVP), and be prepared to iterate based on real-world feedback. This approach can be seen as risky, but it allows for rapid learning and adaptation. Embracing potential failure as part of the innovation process can ultimately strengthen your decision-making confidence and lead to more resilient and user-centered products.

Understand all data points, quantitative and qualitative. Analyse what you get your hands on. Also don't be blocked just because you don't have xyz frameworks, tools readily available. For example if you don't have a heat map of a landing page, use proxies.

Data is not just a tool but a crucial ally for Product Managers, especially when our confidence wavers. However, it's essential to acknowledge that even as professionals, we sometimes need clarification on its significance. I want to tell you that developing a deep understanding of your users' pain points is paramount. Remember, quantitative data alone cannot provide the complete picture. Engaging with teams that are constantly in touch with users and gathering qualitative insights and feedback is crucial. And if you don't have data? There are lean ways to test your hypothesis. For example, as Product Manager, you can suggest: -> Fake doors tests -> A/B tests -> MVP The more resourceful a Product Manager is, the better for the company.

When uncertainty looms, I turn to user analytics, market trends, and performance metrics for guidance. Quantitative data offers objective insights, validating or challenging my instincts. Whether considering new features or refining strategies, data-driven decisions mitigate risks and enhance product success. Let's embrace the power of data to drive informed choices and deliver exceptional outcomes for our users!

We must use key learnings from a successful product launch for example, to set processes and guidelines for our teams to follow. These can be regularly improved and they help all employees learn from the learnings of the team members and apply those techniques and processes to deliver results or solve problems efficiently. Reflecting on successes also develops a positive mindset which focuses on the rights of the team members and appreciates them, instead of only focusing on the faults.

We do not do that enough: think about why things went well instead of focusing on what went wrong. Write down 3 things on why a project went well but it can not be the people because the people you work with are always great!

Reflect on your wins! Remember your product knowledge and past successes navigating complex situations. Revisit past victories where you made tough calls and positive outcomes resulted. This confidence boost reminds you of your expertise and empowers you to make well-informed decisions, even in the face of uncertainty.

In my experience the higher the level of ambiguity involved in the decision the smaller the bets placed. Many times in my career the hardest decision to make has been to slow down to speed up. In one instance a robotics portfolio was a third of the way through delivery and has not realised any of the projected benefits, when I joined. The easier decision for me would have been continue the current path and hope for lagging benefits to land, while a higher risk of not delivering any value. Instead I decided to re-slice the capability build out to smaller tests and embedded some lead indicator data capture, which put the end date at risk but gave us a higher chance of resolving what was limiting value return.

You can extend the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) prioritisation with a risk dimension and the it is called RICE (Risk, Impact, Confidence, Ease). Personally I think risk should be reflected in impact and adding another dimensions introduces complexity and makes it harder to understand for others. In earlier products, Impact is defined by the upside in later stage products, impact is defined by the downside: e.g. doing something wring means that it can cause big revenue declines.

When making a difficult product decision, don't shy away from analyzing potential risks of each option. Identify potential drawbacks, weigh them against the upside, and brainstorm mitigation strategies. This proactive risk management approach allows you to make a more confident choice, knowing you've considered potential challenges and have a plan to address them.

After gathering data, seeking feedback, and reflecting on past wins, trust your intuition. Having analyzed the situation thoroughly, your honed product instinct can nudge you towards the option that best aligns with your vision and user needs. This blend of data, diverse perspectives, and your own experience empowers you to make a confident, well-rounded decision.

As you progress as a product leader, keep trusting your instincts more. You are the person that is most closest to the product and it is okay to make decisions with limited data points.

Part of what you're being paid for is the 6th sense to make the judgement calls based purely on instinct. This will generally come with experience but gut doesn't just have to be restricted to the seasoned! My recommendation would be if you are making 'instinct-based' decisions to keep the bet small. Experiment based on a low spend and then look to quickly move into a build-test-learn cycle that will begin to either validate or disprove the call. By doing so you de-risk the call and start to move to a more evidence based decision. In the absence of feedback or disruptive situations, sometimes all you have is your gut so don't be afraid to us it! Every failure teaches you something

When facing tough decisions as a product manager, here are four strategies to boost confidence and maintain flexibility: Embrace Iterative Learning: Accept that decisions can be adjusted as new information arises, reducing pressure and supporting continuous improvement. Stay Informed and Responsive: Regularly update your decisions based on market changes and user feedback. Utilize a Feedback Loop: Incorporate feedback from all stakeholders to guide your decision-making process. Cultivate a Supportive Environment: Foster a team culture that values open communication and collaboration, enhancing decision quality and confidence.

When you're faced with a tough decision, break it into smaller parts. Gather all the info you need, look at your options, and pick the best one for your product. The more you do this, the more confident you'll become in your choices.

When facing uncertainty in decision-making as a product manager, it's essential to take a step back and classify the nature of the decision at hand. Is it a high-stakes, strategic move that could significantly impact our product's trajectory? Or is it a smaller, tactical decision with less far-reaching consequences? By categorizing decisions based on their potential impact, we can allocate our time and resources more effectively, focusing our attention where it matters most. This approach helps us approach each decision with a clearer perspective, bolstering our confidence in navigating the complexities of product management.

List the pros and cons of both options. Figure out anything thst you might have missed. What the possible impact of both decisions could be, any other data points or insights you might have that would you make the decision? In some cases I have implemented both decisions too btw! Think out of the box. For one group test your hypothesis A, and the other your hypothesis B. See which one fares better for similar demographics. The more user insights, and feedback you get the better you get at measuring them.

Be prepared for unexpected outcomes: Sharing instances where outcomes diverged significantly from expectations can provide valuable learning experiences and illustrate the unpredictability of certain strategies or actions for your team.

Instead of maintaining a rigid point of view and losing confidence when faced with a shock, adopting a flexible approach helps absorb the shock and focus on the positive perspectives of others, potentially turning it to your advantage. Being empathetic becomes more challenging as things escalate. Continuous communication with customers ensures faster feedback, preventing the accumulation of negative feedback that can be harder to overcome and cause greater loss in confidence. Staying humble and recognizing that your customers, both internal and external, are your source of truth, helps you seek their feedback and embrace an empathetic approach to issues, rather than relying solely on your own perspective.