Product management is like cooking
It is sometimes hard to communicate why a product team can't just "build it" when a great idea gets proposed. It's even harder if that idea comes from a place of seniority like an Executive or Investor.
When requests or ideas come from such a place of deep-seated confidence, combined with influence, it's important to be able to explain why the process must always be followed.
It isn't to say that those ideas are incorrect or won't have the desired effect, but at scale a business cannot simply run on gut instinct.
An effective product organisation is led by data and chases a desired outcome based on this.
A simple way of understanding how product management operates is by comparing it to cooking a recipe:
- The ideas are your ingredients.
- The backlog is your pantry.
- The research is what you know everyone eats.
- The strategy is what you think everyone wants to eat.
- The desired outcome is your recipe.
You can always chuck some ingredients together that you know work well; but then you aren't trying something new which may be even tastier.
You can also try chucking in some ingredients together that you don't know work well; but then you risk wasting time on something which tastes disgusting.
If you don't know what recipe you are cooking, then how do you know which ingredients to use?