How My Secrets to Run a Marathon Apply to Product Management

I recently did an interview with my friend, Silvia Li, for her web series “Three Success Secrets. I discussed my secrets to find success in completing a marathon. Yes, the 26.2 miles on your feet type of marathon.

The three secrets I shared in the interview were:

Home stretch!

• Set a Goal

• Be Persistent and Patient

• Find Help

I am about to launch a complete product re-design of our Denial Management offering that was a 3-year “marathon”. The interview made me take a step back and look at my recent experience. I realized the same secrets I shared also apply to Product Management. It is a challenging role that requires a strong set of soft skills to succeed.

These three secrets have helped me navigate the long road to build a product that many of our clients are really excited to get their hands on.

Set a Goal

When I prepared for my first marathon, I set a goal to finish the 26.2 mile journey. I didn’t focus on completing it in a specific time or running faster than someone else. My goal was focused on what I believed success would look like, and everything else was considered a distraction. I could have walked the entire race, and that would have been okay. That goal kept me motivated on those brutal 18 and 20 mile weekend runs while I was training.

In the same fashion, a good Product Manager needs to set goals for the product they are building. These product goals need to be based on the context of the product and the business. Examples can include launching by a specific deadline, meeting new revenue numbers, getting a specific amount of clicks onto a page, or reducing the time and effort to complete a task.

It can be really easy to get off track when building or updating a product. Product Managers constantly face the pressures of competing priorities, limited time and resources, and those distracting “fires”. Setting goals can give you something to point to every couple months to make sure the development efforts are on the right track. It is important to check in on these goals over the course of a project. I pick up my original Positioning Document every couple months to make sure my project is still going to meet the original goals I set. Doing this keeps me grounded during those challenging times.

I recommend using the SMART criteria to set goals. It will set you up for success to have objectively attainable, measurable goals to attain.

Finally, those check-ins may cause the product goals to change. That’s okay. Business priorities change; market needs shift. Set that new goal and re-focus on obtaining it.

Be Persistent and Patient

It’s a bit of an understatement to say training for a marathon is not easy. It is definitely a large physical undertaking. But I believe it is more of a mental exercise to spend 4–5 months ramping up mileage towards 26.2. It was not easy giving up hours of free time on my weekends, dealing with injuries that slowed me down and took my off my training plan, and changing my diet to support my nutritional needs. Believe me when I say there were days I wanted to sleep in, stay home, and watch TV. It takes a lot of persistence and patience to work through the challenges and stay committed to that goal.

That same persistence and patient is required of a good Product Manager to obtain those previously discussed goals. There are always going to be unexpected bumps on the road to building a product. How a Product Manager responds when things do not go according to plan may be more important than setting goals. Losing patience only gets you further off track and closer to failure.

The product redesign I have been working on had 2 or 3 false starts because we discovered the proposed architecture was not going to meet our business and design needs. I also saw this project get de-prioritized twice for other company initiatives. Half of the original development turned over during this period, which led the project shifting to a completely different offshore team.

That’s a lot of chaos for anyone! But I stayed with it. I kept pushing for the project to not be shelved. I would continue to share feedback from current clients that desperately wanted to see the denial management workflow that would increase their team’s efficiency. I had to argue we needed to move to new technology in order to stay competitive. I continued to remind leadership that we could move onto other projects, but my requirements and design concepts were ready to be picked up by development right now.

The point is: if you really believe in the product you are building, then a little backbone is needed to stay persistent and trust the process will get you to the finish line.

Find Help

Running is an individual sport. It was on me to set the training schedule, set aside the time, put the shoes on, and go out there and hit the pavement. However, to do something as intense as running a marathon, it is important to find support. I joined running clubs to run with like-minded people that were encouraging of my goals. I had the support of my friends and family, while saying I was crazy, still showed up on race day to cheer me on. And let’s not forget the volunteers handing me cups of water and sports drink along the way. I may have run the entire race, but I didn’t get to the finish line on my own.

This same secret applies to Product Management. I may be leading the efforts to build a successful product, but I rely on the following people:

• Developers build the product

• QA testers make sure a high quality product goes out the door

• Support and Service personnel share client feedback

• Tech writers provide the necessary user manuals

• Marketing and Sales to spread the word and keep the product profitable

Without my teammates support and advice, I likely would have our clients at our office door with pitchforks and torches (or dropping their subscription).

A good Product Manager knows they are not an island and don’t have all the answers. I was willing to listen to the feedback on design concepts, requirements, and launch strategies. I really believe the collaboration helped me build the best possible product possible.

To bring the point home, I really like the way Patrick Neeman recently summed up the importance of collaboration in product.

Bonus tip: Celebrate your progress

On any long journey, like running a marathon or building a product, it is important to celebrate progress along the way. It is easy to focus on what hasn’t been accomplished and get discouraged. But when a small milestone is met, I take a moment to step back and take note of the successes to get to this point.

These milestones can be the first line of code being written, seeing the first product demo, or having that first successful user test of your design. Acknowledge the progress, thank your team for the hard work, and then celebrate however you see fit!

In Conclusion

The clients will ultimately let me know whether the product will be successful. However, I’m feeling confident my marathon running experience and living these secrets have helped me successfully navigate a challenging product development effort. Setting goals, staying persistent and patient, and finding help allowed me to get to the finish line.

How Improv Will Make You a Better Product Manager

Let’s face it, being a Product Manager is a tough job. Every day can bring new, unexpected challenges: Maybe it’s a new defect in your product, or you have an unhappy client, or maybe your developers just told you that really important feature is going to take 6 months to build. Those are the days when Happy Hour can’t come soon enough.

I was looking for a new activity to take on in my free time over a year ago, and decided to sign up for an Improv course at The Second City in Chicago. I thought it would be fun, with the hope it might help me with my public speaking skills. 15 months later, I have completed their Improv program, performed in numerous shows, and have developed a taste for comedy sketch writing. Little did I know I was stepping into a new hobby that has done wonders for my professional life.

Here are a few areas where Improv can help you become a better Product Manager:

Improv helps you become a better listener

Deep listening is crucial to be a successful improviser. Names, places, and relationships are all being made up during an improv scene. An improviser needs to listen carefully to everything being said so a scene can have continuity. It can be really awkward if one player starts saying they are at a rodeo, and the other player responds by saying they’re a pirate on a ship. It doesn’t make sense and you start losing the audience.

Those listening skills become really important as a Product Manager. Developers may present you a compelling explanation about the feasibility of a feature that could affect product direction. Sales may be describing a potential new feature that could be a business growth opportunity. Listening closely to end-users will help build understanding of the problem they are really having, and help avoid building exactly what they asked for. (Which we know can be exactly what they don’t really need.) I have found my listening skills have improved and allowed me to focus on the problem space to develop a better solutions.

Improv helps you go with the flow

By it’s nature, everything is made up on the fly while improvising. There are no lines to memorize, scripts to read, or stage directions to follow. An improviser can’t control what someone is going to say. However, what they can control is how they respond to what is happening in the scene. Thinking quickly and responding to the unexpected, instead of pausing or freezing, can lead to some funny and compelling moments that will keep an audience engaged.

In my first Product Management role, I realized pretty quickly how much was out of my control in developing products. I could plan all I wanted, but I wasn’t writing the code, determining the corporate strategy, or updating regulations. I found a lot of success in the role came from how I responded to those unexpected situations. The improv lessons helped me embrace the unexpected, and allowed me to go with the flow to keep the product development moving in the right direction.

“Yes, and…”

“Yes, and…” is the classic line that is taught early in improv classes. At it’s core, the line is meant to acknowledge what your teammate said or did, and then to build on it. This acknowledgement leads to a more continuous and compelling scene. Going back to the pirate example, giving a “no” back to a teammate and going a new direction can cause the audience to be confused and lose interest. Worse, the trust is lost between teammates on stage.

As a Product Manager, I will not pretend I have all the answers. In fact, I encourage all of my teammates to speak up and share their ideas with me. My Support and Services team has shared client feedback that helped me avoid releasing a feature that would have not been used. My QA testers have come to me and explain a requirement I had written would have broken the workflow in a different part of the application. My developers have offered suggestions that improved the solution I was working on and delighted clients. If I didn’t listen and “Yes, and…” my teammates, I would not have near the amount of success I have had in my product work.

Improv makes you a better teammate

Improv is not stand-up comedy, it’s a team activity. The best improv teams will work together as a team to provide a fun and interesting show. It is noticeable to an audience when someone is trying to take over the show, and it ruins the energy for everyone. One of my instructors would hammer home that everyone in an ensemble should like each other to put on successful show. It’s meant to be fun! And it’s hard to have fun if you aren’t getting along with other members of the ensemble.

All of those skills I listed above: listening, going with the flow, and “Yes, and…” will make you a better teammate and more of a joy to work with. As a Product Manager, I rely heavily on my soft skills to influence and motivate my teammates to make sure the right solution is built for our clients. Throwing my ego around or getting frustrated does not serve me well, and frankly, no one wants to work with that. I have worked with insecure or egotistical PMs in the past, and have found it just drains the motivation of the development and design teams.

A former manager of mine once told me, “Friends build products, co-workers write requirements.” I have found a lot of truth in this statement in my career, and I continue let my improv experience help me grow as a team player.

Finally, it’s just a lot of fun!

I’m not going to tell you that you need to take an improv class to be a successful Product Manager. That’s a little silly.

I will say, that it has been a ton of fun and I have made plenty of new friends on this journey. I have grown both personally and professionally and I would highly recommend it for anyone.

In fact, I recommend you “Yes, and…” my suggestion…

“There are no mistakes, only opportunities.” — Tina Fey