113: Risks, Challenges, and Obstacles

Risks, challenges, and obstacles

In this episode I propose a new mental model for product managers – we need to always be thinking about risks, challenges, and roadblocks.

They’re components of all the different things we do – market discovery, selling, persuasion, storytelling.

And if they are important to us, the product manager, they are also important to our customers, to our prospects, and to our stakeholders. So it’s always worth asking, in nearly any situation – “what are the risks?”, “what are the obstacles and roadblocks to your success?”, “what are your challenges?”

Links

* Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. I highly recommend this book – it’s very fun to read because it’s full of bad strategies that Rumelt takes great delight in skewering.

* Episode 111: How To Master Strategic Product Management, in which I talk about inferring a strategy from the bottom up. And also mention Rumelt’s book.

* Make Your Business Presentation 10x Better in About an Hour: in which I talk about three simple steps you can take to make your presentation a lot more engaging and compelling.

Subscribe and comment

Please subscribe to The Secrets of Product Management on your podcast system of choice. And consider giving me a review on iTunes or “starring” the episode on your player. Subscriptions and ratings help other product managers and product people find the podcast, and makes me a little happier as well. I might even read your review in an upcoming episode.

If you have comments, questions, or complaints about this episode or the podcast, please leave a comment down below and I’ll get back to you immediately. I respond to every comment and question.

Risks, challenges, and obstacles

In this episode I propose a new mental model for product managers – we need to always be thinking about risks, challenges, and roadblocks.

They’re components of all the different things we do – market discovery, selling, persuasion, storytelling.

And if they are important to us, the product manager, they are also important to our customers, to our prospects, and to our stakeholders. So it’s always worth asking, in nearly any situation – “what are the risks?”, “what are the obstacles and roadblocks to your success?”, “what are your challenges?”

Links

* Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. I highly recommend this book – it’s very fun to read because it’s full of bad strategies that Rumelt takes great delight in skewering.

* Episode 111: How To Master Strategic Product Management, in which I talk about inferring a strategy from the bottom up. And also mention Rumelt’s book.

* Make Your Business Presentation 10x Better in About an Hour: in which I talk about three simple steps you can take to make your presentation a lot more engaging and compelling.

Subscribe and comment

Please subscribe to The Secrets of Product Management on your podcast system of choice. And consider giving me a review on iTunes or “starring” the episode on your player. Subscriptions and ratings help other product managers and pr...