Double trouble

IT vs. The Business. Projects vs. Products. Discovery vs. Delivery. Agile vs. Waterfall. Outcomes vs. Outputs.

If you work in product, you’re probably familiar with these pairs. Digital product or agile development coaches often apply binary, oppositional frameworks and mantras. These A vs. B slogans suggest that a great way to navigate complex transitions in organizational processes is to just slice the subject in two. For example we might ask, What’s product management? And an easy answer is, It’s not project management. Using this approach, we divide a problem and compare the quivering halves. Perhaps a product team’s toolbox should include a cleaver, right next to the Eisenhower Matrix and North Star Framework.

Certainly, these binary models can be useful, especially for teams just getting comfortable with product concepts and methods. I use them too. In fact, I’ve applied product vs. project, outcomes vs. outputs, and discovery vs. delivery already today, and it’s only noon.

But defaulting to binary divisions also can be dangerous. Why? Because it simplifies and reduces things that are complex and expansive. That can lead to poor decision-making, leading in turn to suboptimal outcomes.

And yet our product profession is surrounded by these dualities. For example, a web analytics company recently conducted a survey of product managers by asking another binary question: Is product management an art or a science?

While I suppose I agree with their conclusion—that it’s both—and there’s some excellent insights in the responses they received, and I bear no ill will to that analytics company, I still wonder: why are they even asking this question? Framing product management as art vs. science manages to simultaneously misunderstand three domains: product management, art, and science. It’s a binary construct that reduces a complex, multi-faceted domain into a simple choice between two options, like soup or salad, country or rock and roll, paper or plastic. And that reduction can limit how a product manager thinks and works.

The alternative is to think along spectrums or continuums. Where binary thinking requires choosing between two options, spectrum thinking considers alternatives like both, between, other, and neither. Here’s a simple visualization of this from a writer named Emma Reed, in an essay called Binary Thinking: The Polarization of Mind and Reality.

So yes, use matched pairs if you must, and if you’re feeling frisky, go ahead and insert that confrontational “versus” between them. But don’t let those two options prevent you from considering spectrums, gradients, dimensions, or alternatives. The next time you’re facing a binary choice, recognize that your solution might require blends, or perhaps be on a different path altogether.

Good product professionals don’t just flip switches; they turn dials. A paradox of our field is that to build a great digital product, it helps to work in analog.

On to the Garden,

Around the Garden

Silent killer, qu'est-ce que c'est

Check it out: Binary bias: the silent product sense killer, by Naomi Anezu

In this brief, thoughtful essay, Product Manager Naomi Anezu boldly names the tendency to break experiences into two extremes a bias, and she connects this bias directly to failures in product management. Especially useful: her recognition that a binary bias can cause product managers to neglect the needs of our users.

Anezu then identifies tactics product managers can use to overcome this bias, like “Seek Collaboration” and “Test and Iterate.” It’s hard to argue with any of her analysis or advice. But I’m biased.

Two crafts, one purpose: product & design

Check it out: The value of design in a product organisation, by Dan Ramsden, in Bootcamp, from UX Collective

One of our talented SDG UX strategy consultants and I chatted last week about a course he’d recently taken on product mindsets. This colleague remarked that a lot of the course’s content was so similar to things he’d learned through his extensive design training and career. I couldn’t help but concur. We agreed that design work—his domain—and product thinking—my domain—are in fact profoundly similar, especially as you get more advanced in your practice and the types of problems you work on.

Later that very week I came across this article from design strategist Dan Ramsden, a creative director at the BBC. Ramsden addresses many of the overlaps and conflicts that my colleague and I had just discussed.

Ramsden then describes a continuum of approaches that includes space for product managers and product designers (and other members of an effective product team) to work together. Here’s how he visualizes this:

I hoped the article would conclude with some actionable steps designers can take to reinforce their value to product teams. But perhaps that wish is what Ramsden is cautioning against. After all, a list like that would be reductive and binary. Ramsden is thinking in spectrums.

Check your head

Check it out: Product Operating Model Health check, from Hyperact

The boutique British product development firm Hyperact continues to produce a wealth of world-class advice and tools for product practitioners. Their latest treasure: this simple but useful assessment for any organization wanting to analyze the health of its product practices. We’ve run the assessment through its paces, and we think the level of depth is exactly right for product or strategy leaders.

The assessment is organized into four dimensions: Leadership, People, Process, and Impact. After users complete a quick 10-minute survey, the tool concludes with a nice report, including data visualizations. You’ll need to supply some personal info to receive your results. But Hyperact’s content is worth it.

By the way, SDG has its own tools for assessing the health or effectiveness of a product practice. If you’re interested in learning more, let’s talk.

More Blossoms

Here’s some good reading on binary thinking for product leaders.

• How to Avoid Binary Thinking and Think More Clearly, by Clay Drinko, Lifehack

• Why Full Spectrum Thinking is better than Binary Thinking, by Ditya Mahandaru

• Challenge Binary Thinking for Better Results, by Amy Drader, Growth Partners Consulting

• Stop Choosing Sides: Why the Best Solutions Come from False Choice Rebellion and Critical Thinking, by Richard French

Outside the Box

A few weeks ago, the world’s greatest spreadsheet athletes gathered in Las Vegas for something called the Microsoft Excel World Championship. In this annual event, competitors are given tables of data and use Excel functions to complete challenges with speed and accuracy. There’s even a championship belt and dramatic pro wrestling-style intros.

Check it out at MEWC - Microsoft Excel World Championship.

About the Pollinator

• The Pollinator is a free publication from the Product practice at Solution Design Group (SDG). Each issue features an opening reflection and a curated digest of noteworthy content and articles from across the internet’s vast product community.

• Solution Design Group (SDG) is an employee-owned digital product innovation and custom software development consultancy. Our team of over 200 consultants and other technology and business professionals includes experienced software engineers, technical architects, user experience designers, and product and innovation strategists. We serve companies across industries to discover promising business opportunities, build high-quality technology solutions, and improve the effectiveness of digital product teams.

• The Pollinator's editor is Jason Scherschligt, SDG's Head of Product. Please direct complaints, suggestions, and especially praise to Jason at [email protected].

• Why The Pollinator? Jason often says that as he works with leaders and teams across companies and industries, he feels like a honeybee in a garden, spending time on one flower, moving to another, collecting experiences and insights, and distributing them like pollen, so an entire garden blooms. How lovely.