product management

It is very complicated.

It can be anything. It can be a program, a script, a process, an integration or any other situation, problem or context you may confront in your day.

Do not let someone trick you. Do not confuse complicated with complex. Things can be complex without being complicated. When people try to complicate things, they are masking their root motivations.

Complicate – make something more difficult or confusing by causing it to be more complex

Complex – consisting of many different and connected parts

As a product manager, if you hear these words, or some variation of them, alarm bells should go off and you should proceed with caution. Complexity is a weasel word that, in my experience, is too often used to put up blockers, protect one’s “turf,” or undermine collaboration.

At the most basic level, when you hear this, the person who is telling you all about how complex the issue is, is really just trying to prevent you from understanding what’s going on. There can be many reasons for not wanting you to understand what’s going on, but none of them are ultimately acceptable. The inability to understand is crippling to a PM. After hearing this, and since you’re the ultimate, truth-seeking PM, you need to roll up your sleeves and get to the bottom of the situation. The reality is that it’s going to be messy, but probably not for the reasons you are being told that “it’s complicated.”

Continue reading “It’s Complicated” →

Uber is a new-ish app that has consumers falling in love with it and regulators hating it to the core. As a basic primer, Uber is a mobile app that allows a consumer to hail a hired car (towncar, SUV, or taxi) on-demand in a matter of minutes. Not only that, but it allows the consumer to track the car as it approaches, with estimates of how long it will take to arrive. Then, once a consumer is in the car, all payments are handled automatically, with an email receipt sent immediately after the trip is completed. No hassle with credit cards or digging in your pockets with cash.

When I first heard about Uber, I’ll admit that I was quite skeptical about the whole concept. After all, what was so difficult about calling the cab company and asking them for a cab, waiting for the cab and then paying like you always did once you were in the car. I’m skeptical about the “convenience” of mobile payments when the consumer has to pull something out of their pocket and process a payment; whether that is a credit card or a mobile phone, there’s really no difference.

However, since my initial skepticism, I’ve become a believer. Some of it probably has to do with my first experience with the app. My girlfriend and I were stranded in San Francisco after a wedding reception, fighting for a cab on the street corner with a bunch of other bar-goers and watching cab after cab pass us by. I remembered that this new service was available in San Francisco, so I whipped out my phone, downloaded the app, signed up and within literally two minutes, a nice black sedan pulled up, the driver got out and greeted me by name. We were back at our hotel within 10 minutes and we even to a nice bottle of water to enjoy on the ride home.

Continue reading “Needs, Features and Benefits – Uber” →