I followed the plan but still failed!

Having a solid Product Management strategy and then following that up with a well-thought-out tactical plan can be amazing. Seeing that plan laid out in a neat document with facts, figures, and designs is something Product Managers spend many hours on to ensure we can kick things off correctly and then keep the momentum going to ensure we deliver that important value for customers to help them solve their problems.

However, there is usually a “but” with the statements above, and it’s not the ideal situation in reality. Because things are hard, things are unpredictable and, most importantly, we don’t adjust to the reality around us when things divert from that crisp plan we laid out.

But I put so much effort into that plan! It should work!

Yes, well done on the crisp plan, but that effort isn’t wasted when it fails because we start to understand what we shouldn’t be doing and, more importantly, what our customers really don’t want.

As Product Leaders, we need to constantly be aware of the need to persevere with our plans or pivot away from them when things start to go off the track.

But how can we mitigate the need to constantly pivot when things change?

While “Pivot” or “Persevere” is a solid way of thinking about your plans, I believe its the grounding of the lean mindset that is more important to focus on. Both approaches are costly endeavors, in time and spend, as you and your team strive to deliver that glorious customer value as the clock ticks away.
Lean teaches us that small changes, those course corrections, within short feedback loops allow us to try things on the cheap and adjust our plan according the feedback we receive.

Build, Measure, Learn

And it’s those course corrections that are the real value as we progress with our execution plan through the Build -> Measure -> Learn process.

We start with a simple, measurable hypothesis, build our product prototype, measure that value with our customers and learn what worked and what didn’t work.

And it’s at that point of learning that we need to review our plan, review the intended value, and, most likely, make changes that will set you and your team on a better path. It is also vital to engage with our stakeholders on these changes and “why” the data is telling us we need this course correction for the better.

And that new data is most likely going to affect the metric we have chosen to track things as well; as our plans are updated, so should our metrics or at least our North Star metric to align our plan, our metrics and the problem we are trying to solve for our customers.

So even with amazing, shiny, detailed and well-thought-out plans, we must, as Product Leaders, be able to respond to changes, adjust based on learnings and ultimately do the hard thing of making those course corrections to ensure our product remains customer-centric and solves that problem we discovered.

Looking to dive deeper into this subject?

💡 Our Product Management Fundamentals cohort is led by industry product experts, giving you hands-on product experience covering over 30 essential product skills and tools to help you become an effective product thinker.

💜 At Colab Cohorts, we want to champion the next wave of product professionals, so we provide a safe and collaborative environment supported by our wider community and product mentors (which you’ll get access to throughout the 10 weeks and beyond).

Colab Cohorts is a community for product professionals to learn, share, and grow. We combine participation in cohort-based programs with access to content and community to help you supercharge your career, get promoted, and scale your organization’s impact. At Colab, we have programs with weekly online live sessions designed to help you move into a career in product, develop new skills and learn from exceptional peers. Get to know our courses and apply now.