Motherhood and Product Management: Connecting the Dots
After launching many products, in 2020 I welcomed my first personal launch - a baby! Reflecting on my 10+ years of product management experience, I noticed three truths to early motherhood that also describe product management quite well:
Increasing capacity does not always reduce the delivery time linearly. While it takes one woman 40 weeks to give birth, with two women it doesn’t reduce it to just half the time. Likewise, product managers constantly make tradeoffs between product specs, engineering resources, and delivery timeline. It's critical to know that after certain point, further addition of resource or reduction of scope no longer shortens the time to market.
The reality will deviate from your plan, but having one helps. It's encouraged to have a birth plan, but the actual birth rarely follows the plan. The same is true with product planning, where reality (e.g. market response, tech constraints) always manages to prove even the best-articulated product plans obsolete. Don't feel frustrated that things don’t go with the plan; rather, embrace the change to make the best decisions within the context.
There is more after the launch. Pregnancy is long, uncomfortable, and full of unknown. However, don’t exhaust all the mental energy on "birth", because raising the child after birth is the real deal (therefore, enjoy pregnancy!). Equally, while it seems that product managers are always running against "launches" and the endless pressure, the operation post launch is the true exercise. Putting things in perspective helps me and my team feel more present and make better decisions.
The first time doing something brings up the stress of the unknown. As a new mom, it is assuring to know that my past experience, though seemingly irrelevant, has prepared me somehow. I feel grateful.
And, guess what, mamas? You already know a lot about product management when a career switch could feel daunting. Our life offers a wealth of wisdom - all that we need to do is to connect the dots.
