What if, despite your best intentions with what you think you know at any given point in time, and despite doing everything right based upon your current knowledge, you still failed? It is highly likely you have faced this situation, or know somebody in your close circle of friends who has. Not convinced? How about these examples:
- Sports context – you laid out a strategy for an upcoming game, and executed on that strategy to what appears to be near perfection … but still lost the game.
- Driving context – you followed the speed limit and any other traffic rules … but still got in an accident.
- Health context – you followed a healthy diet, and worked out regularly … but still got sick.
I’m sure there are others from a non-work perspective, but what happens when this scenario presents itself at work? What happens when you capture a dominant market share because you solved a specific market problem; when you responded to customers’ needs in a timely fashion; when you proactively and re-actively reacted to competitive threats to neutralize them quickly; when you consistently delivered a positive P&L for the business year after year? Doesn’t this type of performance describe what good Product Management leaders should be doing? And wouldn’t these results equate to success?
The answer is not always!
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