Problem Solving for Product Managers

Every long meeting gets interrupted by someone doing the following:

Meme Idea Credit — https://thecooperreview.com/10-tricks-to-appear-smart-during-meetings/

It’s such an interesting meeting hijacking hack that it almost always works. But it also is symptomatic of a failure in the way meetings and interactions happen in an organization. If these interruptions happen in a meeting lead by a Product Manager, it is an even bigger failure.

Product Managers are expected to be problem solvers.

One might argue that all employees of an organization are problem solvers in one way or the other. However, Product Managers usually have the first go at a new problem or opportunity (hereby referred to as ‘problem’ collectively) encountered by the organization. They are the equivalent of the first responders in an emergency situation. Their accurate assessment of the situation is extremely crucial in the success of employees who take on the problem after them.

However, a lot of times, Product Managers jump right into the solution. This is a pity since a large number of execution issues have their root in poor problem definition

The fast jump from Problem to Solution

Our natural instinct to jump into the solution might have some roots in our education system.

Growing up as a child, in our schools and universities, the problem statements are very well defined. Even in life, the problems that we encounter in our early years are defined well by our parents and the older folks around us. “Clean your bed.” or “What is the capital of Brazil?” are deterministic problem statements with usually one correct answer or action. We expend all our mental and physical energy in solving the problems and get really good at it.

However, in the adult world with adult problems, things aren’t as deterministic.

When we reach our workplace, we carry the same instinct forward and immediately jump to the solution phase of problem-solving. However, this may not work out well, especially if you are a Product Manager. The problems that a PM encounters are ambiguous, unstructured and unbounded. It’s their responsibility to convert such a problem into something that can be tackled by the organization in a finite amount of time.

Problem Solving Process

In order to beat this natural instinct, one needs to have a problem-solving process and follow it in a disciplined manner for any kind of problem — big or small.

I am listing down one way of approaching a generic problem that works for me. This is a simple repeatable approach that works for all kinds of problems.

A typical Problem Solving process could be as follows:

Problem Definition

This is the phase of problem-solving when the problem is defined clearly in order to execute without ambiguity. Think of it as the part when a sniper takes an aim on the target.

In this stage, the product manager needs to do the following:

• Verbalize the problem — It’s important to clearly state out the problem (preferably in writing).
• Define Goals — Define all the sub-problems that will be addressed.
• Define Non-Goals — Define all the sub-problems that are relevant to the larger problem but will not be addressed.
• Break Down and Conquer — Take the goals that one wants to achieve and break them into smaller problem units which can be addressed by a small team in a short duration.

Solution Definition

In this phase, the product manager needs to do the following:

• Define the solution for each subproblem
• Set milestones and release plan
• Evangelize the solution with the wider organization

This phase would need inputs from folks across the organization — engineering, design etc.

Solution Execution

After the problem and solution are defined, a larger set of teams across engineering, design, product, business etc work towards creating the solution.

This is the time when a Product Manager needs to step back from the action that is happening around the execution and continuously monitor whether the solution continues to remain relevant for the initial problem statement defined.

If the entire problem-solving cycle takes up a really long time, it is really important for the PM to constantly monitor whether:

• The problem definition is still relevant
• The solution is still relevant

Its a really tempting prospect for a Product Manager to get so deeply involved with the execution that they take their eye away from their Problem Space.

The Key to Good Problem Solving — Discipline

The Problem Solving process that I have proposed above is extremely basic. You may already be following a rigorous problem-solving process which covers all the aspects that we discussed here. However, what’s important is the discipline of sticking to a basic problem-solving process that doesn’t budge under the pressure of superiors, timelines or even customers.

Note to self — Buying gym membership is worthless if one doesn’t get up every morning and hit the gym.

Product Managers own the problem statement. They are responsible to spend time with the problem, wrestle with it, sleep over it, and then convert it into a comprehensible problem statement that can be understood by the wider organization.

This is the single most important contribution of a Product Manager in an organization.