5 things I learnt from the OG Product Manager | David Washa

“I am a lifelong student of Product Management besides other things and also a proud nerd!”, said David Wascha - the ex CPO from Zoopla, Travelex, Moo.com, Photobox and many other product and service companies, when I asked him to introduce himself on the podcast. Dave, currently an advisor at Kindered Capital VC is actively auditing products for established organizations and startups.

I have had more than 15+ guests on the podcast - Product leaders, founders, researchers and influential personalities from various industries, with an average experience of 10+ years. Although, for me, having David over for a recording - was when I felt I peaked in my podcast series. Honestly!!

With an experience of more than 30 years in the field of product management, across products that affect millions, David is an avid explorer of human behaviors’, neuroscience and design. Below are top 5 ideas I learnt from this OG PM, and I wholeheartedly believe, you will come out few % smarter at the end of this newsletter. So, without any further ado, let’s jump right in!

Insidious forces that makes corporates lose sight of their original mission

Companies, especially product based organizations spend a lot of time battling entropy and inertia. David observed this pattern across multiple organizations that he worked with, consulted and even advised - they tend to burn a lot of calories in maintaining the status quo.

David says and I quote, “companies believe that once they achieve Product Market Fit, their job is DONE!” Although, it’s usually the opposite. The real battle begins when you find the right market fit for your product.

The battle of maintaining the focus on product market fit.

The moment companies start to get affected by things such as cultural factors, socio-economic factors, human factors, environmental factors etc. - that tries to defocus them from maintaining product market fit - “Product Market Drift” starts to take place.

As companies grow, they tend to prioritize expansion, growing at all cost, recruiting, hiring, marketing etc. - which results in the displacement of their original mission!

How to stay intact with your Product Market Fit?

No company is ever immune to Product Market Drift, although the key is developing a culture, a set of dynamics and an ecosystem that forces you to reconsider things on a regular basis.

Regular brainstorming and questioning should be conducted to understand if the company is spending a healthy amount of energy and resources in maintaining the original mission. The primary objectives of the product.

Netflix has been in existence since more than 2 decades now, but this is the first time they are facing all kinds of challenges. Right from maintaining subscribers, active users, revenue growth, stagnation of growth as a product etc.

David says Netflix has been basically a 4 different companies in last 20 years.

? Renting DVDs,

? Making worldwide entertainment accessible,

? Producing and creating content

? Managing password sharing breaches.

And for the first time in history, this huge product org is experiencing a Product Market Drift. They are not focusing on finding new ways of satisfying customers or acquiring new customers, and are rather drifting away from their primary objectives.

Humans essentially do not like change!

We as humans and Product managers, we have our own problems. Problems of staying focused on our users, their problems. And unfortunately, biologically we don’t like to take in new information.

We are hardwired to resist change. Part of the brain—the amygdala—interprets change as a threat and releases the hormones for fear, fight, or flight. Your body is actually protecting you from change.

Taking in new information for the brain is a very expensive operation to perform. It uses a lot of calories for the brain to connect synaptic connections and hence, the brain avoids all kinds of new ideas and information, unless, it really has to.

For Product Managers, the moment we realize, NOW WE UNDERSTAND OUR CUSTOMERS, we stop taking in new information as a human.

A company needs to build an ecosystem wherein the moment one detects the product is drifting away from its core objective. It should efficiently attack these new insidious forces out and keep the product aligned.

Be insatiably curious!

Dave indulges in churning out learning elements and ideas from everything that he comes across. It maybe a book on Japanese Woodworking or North African Cooking and try applying those worldly principles to every aspect of Product Management.

Audit your Product.

Internally there are lots of ways to bring in expertise from outside the business to either validate your ideas, strategies, finances, security and compliances etc.

But, still in 2023, there are no single ways of evaluating the quality of a company’s product plan.

Questions like: who is your target market? How do you differentiate yourself - your product vs the competition?

Apparently, a lot of companies out there are not aware of the answers to these fundamental key questions. Which is baffling to know.

A Chief Product Officer is also a Chief Alignment Officer - since most dysfunction in companies is driven out of a lack of alignment.

BONUS!!!

Book Recommendations from David for every Product Manager:

1. So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion?(Cal Newport)- So Good They Can't Ignore You sheds some much needed light on the “follow your passion” myth and shows you that the true path to work you love lies in becoming a craftsman of the work you already have, collecting rare skills and taking control of your hours in the process.
2. Deep Work?(Cal Newport)-?Deep Work proposes that we have lost our ability to focus deeply and immerse ourselves in a complex task, showing you how to cultivate this skill again and focus more than ever before with four simple rules.

Read them in that order.

1. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Carol Dweck)?-?Your mindset—how you see yourself—shapes how you respond to people and events, to affect your outcomes. In this book,?Carol Dweck draws on 20 years of research to explain how you can recognize, understand and change a fundamental mindset to impact all aspects of your life.
2. Hard Things About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz)?- 'The Hard Thing about Hard Things'?Ben shares his experience of being a founder-CEO and the hard decisions he has had to make — offering advice on managing tough problems as a leader, which business schools do not cover.