A good Product Manager is comfortable being in a regular state of ambiguity.
This is a natural state in Product Management. We often field tens, if not hundreds, of feature requests on a regular basis and start to plot them on our mental roadmap long before they ever get to (digital) paper. As we probe for value and urgency, we sort and reorder those requests based on theme or stakeholder or business objective. Product planning can be in a constant state of Tetris as we work towards our strategy.
A good product manager will bring this attitude to discovery as well. True discovery focuses on the problem and not just finding a way to implement your solution, so it’s important to be comfortable learning and having our assumptions or biases disproven. This counts for both the business strategy as well as understanding our customers and their JTBD.
It may seem counterintuitive to dive into data while practicing ambiguity, but that’s precisely why it’s important. Quantitative data is only one part of the full product story; qualitative data is another. Diving into this kind of data while keeping an open mind around the problem we’re solving is critical to focusing on our customers. We learn more as we do more.
Even when we get to the prototyping stage with a loose idea of our strategy, we need to keep ourselves in check. We’re testing ideas here and need to be comfortable with discarding them if they’re not right for our customer. One of my favorite moments as a Product Manager comes from having my favorite prototype completely decimated in a user interview because it was so far off base from what the customer really needed. My prototype was tied to my personal idea of what the product should look like, and I cared too much about the design. Thus, my favorite mantra was born: “You are not the user.”
Ambiguity lives with roadmaps too. My favorite roadmaps are in the Now/Next/Later format for this precise reason instead of being release timelines. Our best laid plans for the product are constantly being interrupted; this is normal and expected. By treating the roadmap as a discussion for the product vision, we can show progress and a plan without being tied to any specific dates.
Being comfortable with ambiguity while staying true to your vision takes practice. Through trust and communication, Product Managers use roadmaps to reflect their vision and strategy, and make plans for features that tie into it.