ProductVida

YES we are!
Good product managers wear many hats. They (we 😛 ) hunt for ideas, build strategies, keep an eye on the market & competition, while at the same time act as maestros in coordinating the orchestra of developers, marketeers, support and sales in order to build, launch and scale a product successfully. And as important as it might sound, at the end of they day we are just very good copycats!

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” said Einstein, but apparently he was referring to his fellow physicists and their effort to discover new theories of our existence. He was definitely not referring to business people and especially not business people in software and digital services. Let’s be honest, innovative ideas are rare and whole startups consist merely of optimised existing ideas, aka solutions to problems we see on existing competitors or underserved needs of the market. Is that really new or innovative?

Just Google it!

How many times have you encountered the “blazing fast” sentence on web hosting provider websites? Many, and I am ashamed to say that I have also used it in my texts, simply because I saw it somewhere and I liked it. If the 1st impulse when a question comes to your mind is to Google it, then I am sorry, I have to welcome you to our copycat club, it’s not the dark side, but we have cookies. Ops… just did it again!

I have spent so much time reading articles about the latest in hosting industry, domains, customer service, and equal time spying competitors websites or generally browsing for ideas and features. I have spent so much time in acquiring knowledge that I have stopped thinking on my own, and definitely I have stopped creating new one. Even now, writing this blogpost, my sick brain is trying to recall a post someone showed me on his phone. I can even recall photographically that moment, instead of actually thinking on my own and writing down my personal thoughts.

Breaking patterns…

Oh my! My brain by now even visualises the opening of a new tab. Command+N has become so automatic to me that when I am stuck on a word or on a piece of text I need to write, I just google a part, get different pieces of content online, modify and combine them together. I am ashamed, but I do it… so fast… so good that you cannot imagine! Have I really rewired my brain to copy? I think I have, and it makes total sense considering that my brain wants to spend the minimum possible energy to perform a task.

The only way to change is to break all patterns! And that is exactly what I will do and already have been trying to do with this blog. Time to fight with my brain, no matter how difficult it is, or how successfully copying has been until now. It’s easy to open a new tab and search for something, but easy is boring and it messes with they way I move also in my personal life! At the end of the day, product managers always come to a point that one decision will make a difference, and that decision should be made with pure creativity and critical thinking.

Come on Panda, we have work to do!

Time to awake that creativity, that I imagine as a big fat panda chewing leaves (or noodles), chilling on a fluffy pillow. Come on panda, break those habits and change that mindset… because:

“Your mind is like this water, my friend. When it is agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear.”

Ops, I promise it’s the last time I do it! <3