Being Intentional — A vital quality of a PM
Intentions define how we want to do something; they direct us on the right path and help us re-align if we go adrift in the journey. How does one go about identifying intentions? Let's take a sneak peek:
"You can't improve something that is not measured," and everyone, every being, wants to improve in something or the other.
A question that has kept me awake for many nights. What am I giving back to society? The impact I have on this earth, the impact that I bring to the lives of others? The impact that I am going to leave this earth with? The answer is simple — quantify it! The solution, though, might not be simple, i.e., how do you measure impact? How do you calculate it, derive it, and standardize it?
Intentions help define this. A little philosophical — isn't it? Let's come back to reality!
Everyone has come across a time when they had to decide between A and B. It could be difficult, such as choosing between buying an iPhone's latest version versus the one before that or a simple one, such as eating a slice of Pizza vs. a Salad. Not that they are comparable, but even to identify their comparability — one needs to have a standard to measure them against, something quantifiable, a Metric!
Investopedia defines metrics as "measures of quantitative assessment, commonly used for comparing and tracking performance or production."
Just like in life, in the product world, there is a multitude of decisions that require a comparison between choice A or choice B, feature 1 vs. feature 2, and so on, and the PMs are required to make these decisions based on some pre-defined business metrics. In a few cases, it might be easy to define such a metric, but there are times when one needs to be very careful to define a metric to assess performance and take action. Sometimes, you are tasked to define metrics for the product yourself.
Let's take the example of Netflix. As an entertainment giant in the streaming business, they must rely on the amount of time people spend on their platform across multiple devices as their north-star metric. Similarly, for Amazon, the online retail giant, the north star metric could be "Dollar value per user per month." Every business, for that matter, has an intention - defined by a metric that, in turn, is closely tied to its business values and mission, and every team member keeps it in mind to drive changes and take action.
The metrics/KPIs of a business need to be coherent and strongly attached to the core value the company is trying to drive, the vision they want to attain, and its ultimate reason for existence in the marketplace. However, in a rush to achieve certain business goals, we mustn’t forget to define such metrics and assess the performance of the product/offering on these core measurements regularly. When product teams exhibit such behavior, the results are — A total failure in the value attainment for the end users and a product with a laundry list of features with no coherence.
As a PM, one should arrive at a list of critical metrics and one north metric in close consultation with the business leadership. This should be in close sync with the business mission, values, and intention, and the same set of metrics must be used regularly to identify and prioritize features in the product backlog. Even for any new feature requirement or requests coming their way, the PM must stop and ask questions such as — what will this feature's impact on metric XYZ? Will this new feature impact any of the defined KPIs, and how much? Why must I choose to prioritize between feature X and feature B? Which metric am I trying to move in this sprint, and how will these features help me move the needle?
To add more depth to the equation, the KPIs might differ from an exact calculation/number you can gather and act on. A conscientious PM would go deeper to identify proxy metrics to see if they are telling a trustworthy story and are solving the intention of the business, or should I add a few qualitative feelers to refine the metric to be better suited to my intention?
Say, for example, the Google search team were to identify engagement of their platform, one could say that "Number of searches" is a good metric to understand how they are doing on this parameter. They will be correct; however, will it be the most accurate number to define the clear picture and reliably be used for future reference?
The answer is No. "The number of searches" could be a high-level metric. However, to ensure that the users are engaged and are using the platform for the intention with which it was created, the metric of choice would be the "Number of unique searches." By changing a qualitative metric, we now have a much more meaningful number to work with, and one which is close to the intention of Google.
The unique nature of searches and the related results help the Google team identify the different contexts that the user has questions in, the various fields and constructs with which they are using the platform, and also helps Google refine their search indexing and improve lives of not just some user, but many more users.
Not that Google needs to increase its expanse into different categories, but you get the feeling.
A few things to note on metrics therefore are:
- Be true to the product and the business that you are in. The closer the metrics are to the core offering and the company's intention, the easier it will be for you to drive action.
- Be mindful of the decision on how to calculate and enumerate the metric. This should be customized for what you plan to drive and the goal the product has for its existence.
- You don't need to attain any specific levels of metrics from the first day of defining the metric. Give it a few months or quarters to understand the product performance and user behavior around the key metrics. This period should help you identify the benchmarks for the future and is also dependent on the nature of the product. A low-touchpoint product will need a higher incubation/waiting period to set such benchmarks than a high-traffic product.
- Closely follow the metric regularly — use the same for decision-making in terms of feature prioritization and use the metrics to drive conversations with stakeholders — these metrics will help you be transparent across the board — and motivate all team members to work in the same direction.
- Revisit the benchmarks and calculations post a major product decision or launch — either they will need an update, or they might need to be relooked at. The latter is a rare observation but is a possibility for a start-up.
Following the above-discussed items will help you and your team identify the critical metrics for the product and measure the delta in the metrics release after release. This is how you can identify your impact on the product as a team. As soon as the above principles start getting applied at the business level, the effect at higher levels is recognized and helps businesses approach salience in the community. At its core, identifying intention enables you to identify the metrics that help determine the impact.
Thankfully, the metrics in the product world are more easily quantifiable, but how does one set metrics in their life to help identify the impact they are making to the world and other philosophical beings? So for those like me, who want to have a positive impact on society, to leave it a bit better than how we found it, from the environmental lens, we can look at metrics such as the amount of waste generated, amount of fuel saved, amount of electricity saved, and other such meta-metrics to help identify our current contribution to the universe and how to negate some of the deteriorating impacts we as humans have and how to improve the positive ones.
Leading a more intentional life, a more mindful life, and just being in touch with nature and knowing our actions impact nature today and have repercussions tomorrow is a small step that can help make a significant impact with persistence.
How do you define metrics in your life and the product you are working on? Do share your views to help make a positive impact on my thoughts.
