The movie Twins and a triangle

I've always been a fan of the 1988 odd-ball movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Apart from being amusing, and proper 80's in all its glory, it has always been an easy go-to as an analogy.

I've said it probably one too many times when I compare Project and Product management. One is the well thought-through structure, refined over millennia by scholars to be the adonis of management principles, celebrated by the masses. The other is a street-smart, wise-cracking fireball, that doesn't always fit in, and has too many side-hustles to remember what to do with them.

I'll leave it up to you, to determine which one is which in regards to Product vs. Project, for now. The specific thing I wanted to draw you attention to, is the things they have in common. While one is a start-stop, and the other a continuum, the management tools are very much shared.

Both share models on stakeholders, finances, the concept of time, quality and much more. And in this specific example, they should also share something that every project manager have etched on the inside of their eye-lids, the golden triangle. If you're not fully comfortable with the triangle, that's ok. It essentially is a model of constraint, putting time, cost and scope at each angle, with quality taken the centre dimension.

Now, as a project manager, this all should be as easy as breathing, but product managers tend to complicate it further. After all, surely we would include customer value, make greater use of the HCD diamonds, and ultimately be clearer on the test, learn and validation cycles?

Sure, I don't disagree with that. But, utilising existing and well-known management tools such as the triangle for product management on its own is also a valid argument. Every product or product experience has constraints, either by time, cost or scope, that ultimately impacts the quality. Be it a new start-up with limited finances, mitigating the risks by endlessly wrestling with MVP goals, or by a larger organisation trying to beat the competition to market, pushing their teams to the brink by abusing all known natural laws of time.

Utilising tools such as the true and tested triangle is a great tool in your story-telling arsenal, don't be afraid to use it. As in the movie Twins, they only really flourished, when they started to use their commonalities, realising they were stronger together (at least I hope so, never finished it).

Ngā mihi nui,

Thommy