ProductFTW #25: User Problems
I see product managers attempting to mangle the problem into a problem that matters to them and that they can solve.
Understanding the user's problem is the most crucial part of the job for product managers. It sounds easy, but clearly understanding and defining a problem is a huge challenge.
Product managers need to identify problems and prioritize them. This ability to identify and prioritize enables a product manager and a design and engineering team to build a solution to each problem.
Unfortunately, what I see and what I hear most of the time is that product managers focus on two things instead:
- the product manager's problems
- a cool solution
The product manager's problems
Because product managers are trying to build products that users love and, most importantly, are willing to pay for (be it by engaging with advertisements or, better yet, paying for value delivered), it is critical that she is focused on what her users need and what problems they have. This requires empathy on her behalf for her users’ problems.
In an idealized world, a product manager would be solving for a group of users just like her, in which she is the user and understands everything. This situation is very rare. It sometimes happens for entrepreneurs who have the luxury of hiring themselves to solve their problems. My previous company, Wallaby, was an example of this. However, in the real world, most product managers are doing a job and are not explicitly solving a problem that applies directly to themselves.
I see product managers attempting to mangle the problem into a problem that matters to them and that they can solve.
For example, at Wallaby, we primarily focused on helping a user focus on maximizing credit card rewards. These users typically did not carry credit card balances and did not care about that problem. That said, more people in the country carry a credit card balance, and solving this is a tempting idea. It serves many users, and many product managers, including some who worked for me at Wallaby, wanted to pursue this. It wasn't our goal, nor was it our user. If we had tried to solve that problem, we would have ignored our users' problems and instead focused on our (the product manager's) own problems.
A cool solution
The second standard error that product managers make is to focus on a solution without regard for whether a problem exists at all. This approach is backward product management, but sometimes it works out OK.
For example, you might imagine a cool product, like an automated drone, for rotating the pebbles in your rock garden. I suppose someone is probably frustrated about rock garden pebble rotation, but in this silly example, it seems more like a solution in search of a real problem.
Finding problems, comparing problems
We're not looking for solutions (yet), and we're hoping to solve problems for an identified user group. Finding problems that are worth solving is challenging. What is a good problem? Do enough people have this problem?
The most famous version of this question that I hear (and which I don't like) is: "Is it a vitamin or a painkiller?" (Implying that vitamins are only nice to have.)
I argue that the severity of the problem might factor into usage frequency, value provided, and pricing, but it doesn't factor into whether or not a problem is real (or not).
For example, many of the most popular products don't solve a real pain point (at least not in my opinion). Let's take Spotify. It is a hugely successful product and company that solves the problem of users being unable to access virtually any song they want to at any time. Access to a vast music catalog is a valid problem. It isn't life-threatening. There was music before Spotify (and there will be music after). One might argue that this problem and solution is a vitamin, not a painkiller, but it might be a real pain for some people. Either way, it is a real problem; you can build a product to solve it.
The question related to this is: Can you be a product manager at Spotify if you don't care about music? Perhaps Spotify wouldn't want you to be, but if you were good at being a product manager, then yes, you absolutely could.
In technology companies, especially startups, all hiring managers, especially founders/CEOs, are seeking people for whom the problem is personal. This is a shortcut to solving the first issue noted above more than anything else. I agree that product managers who are solving problems where they are users have an easier time and, perhaps, can come up with new problem statements more rapidly.
However, it is absolutely not a requirement, and hiring managers may be missing some great opportunities by making this a requirement. In one last example, when I worked at Green Dot, we made reloadable prepaid debit cards for the unbanked. Not surprisingly, most of the company, including the product team, was banked. We had to work harder to understand our users' motivations and empathize with their problems. While understanding our users is an achievable goal, finding unbanked technical product managers was unlikely.
If you want to build a great product, you need to spend time with your users, understand their real problems, and focus on articulating that clearly and in a prioritized way. Only then can you focus on how to solve the problem at hand.
About ProductFTW
ProductFTW is a weekly newsletter about product management, with a focus on real-life experiences in startups. We want to help product leaders be successful by giving realistic approaches that aren’t for giant tech companies. We know you don’t have a full-time product designer on each team. We know your software probably hasn’t been used by millions of people worldwide–yet. We’re here to bridge the content gap from building your product and team to scaling it.