A Zero-to-One PM: A Role of Repeated Failures

Hi, I'm Zahin. I'm a Zero-to-One product manager working with a startup for over 3 years.

Here's one thing about me: I can tell you 8 ways to fail at what you do. And as a result of that, I can teach you 2 ways to not fail at what you do. And that's what these articles will (mostly) be about.

If you are someone who -

• Has no clue what a product management role is
• A developer who hates to code but loves to manage people
• Wants to be a product manager but has no clue how to get started

Then you've come to the right place. I am almost as clueless as you are, but we're gonna learn together.

I've sat down to write this after a 90-minute session on adplist.org , where a seasoned product manager with more than a decade of experience spend most of his breath trying to reassure me of one thing -

Failure is not a bad thing. Failing doesn't make you bad at your job. It actually makes you better.

He was not the first person to say this to me, and he won't be the last. And my Imposter Syndrome infused brain will take more time to accept it than one would assume.

I was thinking of writing about another PM framework today, or maybe a case study of implementing Design Thinking with a real life example. But after the session, I kind of went back into the foundations of what I believe truly makes a product manager.

As someone who worked at a startup, with an idea that was bloody difficult to explain, failure was an everyday phenomenon to me.

I tried different things, and I ended up failing in different ways. And that. fellow product younglings, is the first thing you need to know to become a Zero-to-One PM.

So, what even is a Zero-to-One PM?

Its a term I made up to make myself feel like what I do is important. Well, not really. I'm kidding. (or am I?)

In the simplest way possible, being a Zero-to-One PM means turning an idea into the very infant stage of something concrete (the fancy term for this is minimally viable product or MVP)

You have nurtured and an idea for a while now. You have big ambitions, and big plans about how you are going to turn them into reality. In your head, you can see a future where your idea sparks a revolutionary change.

This is called Product Vision. This is usually the type of discussion you will have with the executive level people in your company, people who can envision the "forest view" or the "big picture".

I'll give you a fair warning here - Product Vision is something that almost never straightforward. Its usually concise and abstract, and its your job to elaborate and make it concrete.

Now that you know where you want to go, you start building the path to get there from where you are. Think of this step like a "choose your own adventure" type of game, but you want a specific outcome at the end of it. So you have to figure which exact choices will lead you to that outcome, and how one choice leads to another and crafts your desired storyline.

This is called Product Strategy. Its all about setting different milestone that you want to achieve as you evolve the product over time. These milestones are usually more concrete than the vision itself, but there's still more details to add.

You have talked the talk so far. Now its time to walk the walk.

You've set the finish line. You've set the milestones. Its go time.

Define all the details now, possibly by asking questions like these -

• Does everyone know everything they need to know in order to start building?
• What are you going to get done NOW? And what will you do NEXT/LATER?
• Who will be building the product alongside you? What roles will they play?
• What obstacles might get in the way and how can you avoid them?
• How do you know you've achieved what you wanted to achieve?
• How do you ensure that you've built the product properly?
• How do you make sure the product doesn't break?
• How do you continuously evolve the product?

The more questions you ask, the more you can get into the nitty-gritty details. And this is a cycle you will have to repeat, as you reach one milestone after another. As you repeat the cycle, you create a list of items that the users demands to get fixed/done (Backlog).

This is what is known as Product Roadmapping. You can also do it backwards, where you create a list of the user's pain points, and then ask questions based on that.

If you have made it this far, then you have understood three fundamental principles of a product role. CONGRATULATIONS! Give yourself a pat on the back!

Now, let's get back to the more important part.

Failing.

Things are not as easy I (probably) made them sound. It's difficult. Vague. Messy. Frustrating.

Let me give you an analogy.

Think about a newborn baby, who just got home from the hospital. You've read up all the books on babysitting and parenting. You've seen more TikTok reels from toddler moms that you an count. Now the baby is finally here, and you have to take care of them every day.

Needless to say, you have to do a LOT of the things at the same time. You have to make sure the environment is not contaminated. The milk is just the right temperature. The diaper is being changed at the right time. The bedtime stories need to be fun. The toys need to be engaging, but not addicting. Also they definitely can't hurt the baby. The pets need monitored as well if you have any

The entire time you're juggling through all of that, the baby is crying. Very loudly. Nonstop. Most of the times, you can't even figure out why. And despite all your efforts, they might fall sick. There might be an accident.

And there will always be someone out there telling you, that you are doing a terrible job.

I'm pretty sure the situation sounds very chaotic, and demanding. Sometimes maybe even suffocating. I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't feel that way. A startup role requires you to build playbooks and execute them at the same time. I had to define where we wanted to take the products, the craft the roadmap, design mockups, plan sprints, coordinate implementation, perform testing and QA, and then take it all to the users for feedback.

Only to realize that this is not at all what they wanted. So now, I have to start from scratch, for the umpteenth time.

And at one point, you end up asking yourself, "What's the point?"

There were so many moments when I talked about all the things I have done so far, and saw everything being reduced to "But I don't see any successful results!". And that stings like hell. The cold, hard truth is, if you want to be a Zero-to-One PM, you have to get used to it.

But do you know what doesn't sting like hell? Finally succeeding after failing over and over again. That one, surreal, lightning bolt of a moment, when you see someone using (and praising) something YOU built.

Robert Bruce is probably clapping from his grave right now.

And I have made it my career mission that I will always be there for all the people who are continuously failing, so that they are not falling into the trap of being too afraid to try. This little corner of LinkedIn is where your failures will be celebrated. We'll discover, together, how our failure gives us lessons and wisdom that sets us apart.

I'll leave you with the one quote from my boss that impacted me the most -

There is no way to fail. Only to get better.

I'll be back next week more random product ranting!

Images:

1. https://herbig.co/product-vision-vs-product-strategy/
2. https://roadmunk.com/guides/content/images/2020/08/Swimlane-Roadmap.png

Resources:

1. https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-product-vision
2. https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-strategy/what-is-product-vision
3. https://jackiebavaro.substack.com/p/what-is-product-strategy
4. https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/mastering-product-strategy-and-growing
5. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/product-roadmap-should-you-build-one-steve-johnson