Netflix's innovation cycle helps me navigate ambiguity as a PM
How to deal with open questions and navigate ambiguity
While you don’t have direct authority as a PM, you are very much the captain of the ship.
It’s not always smooth sailing. Ambiguity presents itself in various parts of the job ranging from strategy to implementation. At the moment, I’m planning for a feature that is tied to an industry experiencing a lot of changes. High level, some of the questions that have been floating around my mind include:
What is going to be technically possible for our solution based on APIs we’ll be using?
What seem to be the most difficult parts of implementation, and is the engineering complexity worth it for our v1? In other words, would not having certain functionality significantly impact adoption and engagement?
How do we make the customer onboarding experience as quick and seamless as possible?
What are the parts of our existing product that may need to be adjusted or improved as part of this larger feature roll out?
Netflix has an innovation cycle that is outlined in No Rules Rules (which I highly recommend reading). The cycle is a great process for navigating all types of ambiguities, ultimately making calls on tough decisions, and learning from them.
“Farm for dissent,” or “socialize” the idea.
For a big idea, test it out.
As the informed captain, make your bet.
If it succeeds, celebrate. If it fails, sunshine it.
From a product POV, the process is likely most relevant during roadmap planning and other strategic initiatives like coming up with a brand new feature idea or adoption strategy that has not yet been discussed. However, I also find it helpful at the design and implementation level.
Farming for dissent / socializing an idea essentially means speaking with others internally to gather their perspectives on open questions and ensure there are not others you haven’t considered. Even if you believe you have answered all open questions, validating your answers with key internal stakeholders is smart. The market shouldn’t be the first stakeholder telling you that your answers don’t make any sense!
As the PM, you ultimately need to arrive at the answers to all of these questions. But that does not mean you are expected to (nor is it advised) to arrive at them by yourself. At the implementation level, I work with our engineering team, designer and head of product to arrive at the best answers. When operating at a strategic level (i.e. doing roadmap work), I work with executive stakeholders and others cross functionally to ensure I completely understand how open questions impact others.
There might be times I have a good sense of what the answers are, but other times I really need to talk things out with colleagues and get their perspectives before developing my own. I believe this is the best way to deal with ambiguity in product and bring new ideas to life.
The innovation cycle is integral to product management and software development as a whole. It helps to validate what the right things are to build and how to build them right. As a PM, there is no way of escaping ambiguity and open questions. It is what makes the role challenging and fun. Reference easy to execute processes like the above to guide you along the way!