💁♀️ You didn't fail, your product did. Susana Lopes, Senior Product Manager @Onfido
Summary
TLDRこのスクリプトは、プロダクトマネージャーとしてのキャリアにおける挑戦と失敗について語ります。最初のプロジェクトが人々に嫌われ、大きなプロジェクトが1人の顧客のみに使われた経験から、現在では複数のチームと協力して、年間2倍の成長を遂げる製品を担当しています。しかし、成功の裏には挫折が隠されています。失敗を恐れず、失敗から学び、自己価値と製品の成功を分離することで、より大胆で強いプロダクトマネージャーになることを目指しています。
Takeaways
- 🚀 キャリアのスタート:スピーカーはキャリアの最初の月で最初の機能をリリースし、1年目に大きなプロジェクトを完了しました。
- 📈 成長と進歩:現在、スピーカーは複数のチームと協力し、年間10倍の成長を遂げています。
- 😔 失敗の陰:成功したLinkedInプロフィールの裏には、失敗と挫折が隠されています。
- 👵 祖父母からの教訓:祖父母の時代は教育が限られており、彼らは独裁者サラザルの下で生活しましたが、彼らは成功を繰り返し、教育者となりました。
- 🎓 親の影響:親は大学院を卒業し、コンピューターサイエンスの博士号を取得しましたが、成功は期待されていたため、失敗は選択肢ではありませんでした。
- 🔒 成果主義への釘付け:スピーカーは「失敗はオプションではない」という考え方を持っていましたが、これはチームの創造性と学習を制限する可能性があります。
- 📅 期限への執着:期限に関連する成功のメトリックに焦点を合わせることで、実際のビジネスやエンドユーザーへの影響よりも優先されます。
- 🔄 失敗から学ぶ:スピーカーは「失敗を早くして早く」と学び、製品開発のリスクを減らす方法を模索しました。
- 📉 成長の停滞:製品が成長目標を達成しない場合、スピーカーは個人的な失敗感に苦しみ、自己評価と製品の成功を分離する必要性を認識しました。
- 💪 感情的強靱さの重要性:スピーカーは自己評価と製品の成功を分離し、感情的強靱さを構築することで、より大きなリスクを取り、キャリアを進展させることができました。
- 🔄 失敗からの前進:スピーカーは失敗を前進の機会として捉え、製品の失敗を個人的な失敗と混同しないように心がけ、自己啓発的なマントラを用いて自己を励ましました。
Q & A
スピーカーは自分のキャリアのどの段階で最初の機能をリリースしましたか?
-スピーカーはキャリアの最初の月に、彼の最初の機能をリリースしました。
スピーカーが最初の大規模なプロジェクトは誰によって使用されましたか?
-スピーカーの最初の大規模なプロジェクトは、1人の顧客によってのみ使用されました。
スピーカーはなぜ自分のキャリアを「影のキャリア」と呼ぶのですか?
-スピーカーは自分の失敗や不成功を「影のキャリア」と呼んでおり、これは彼が直面した困難や失敗を象徴しています。
スピーカーがどのように自分の失敗との関係を変化させたのか説明してください。
-スピーカーは、失敗を恐れず、大胆で勇気を出して直面することを学び、それが彼をより強力で大胆なプロダクトマネージャーに変えました。
スピーカーの祖父母の教育レベルはどのくらいでしたか?
-スピーカーの祖父母は、ポルトガルで教育を受け、その時代には平均的な教育レベルは4年生でした。
スピーカーの親は大学を卒業しましたか?
-はい、スピーカーの親は家族の中で初めて大学を卒業し、さらにコンピューターサイエンスの博士号を取得しました。
スピーカーはどのようにしてチームにストレスをかけたのか説明してください。
-スピーカーは、期限内に機能をリリースするためにチームを閉じ込めたり、機能の範囲を縮小したりして、チームにストレスをかけました。
スピーカーはどのようにして失敗を早期に検出する戦略を実践しましたか?
-スピーカーは、ユーザーテストや最小限のアプリのリリース、そして多くのアナリティクスを用いて、失敗を早期に検出する戦略を実践しました。
スピーカーが直面した最も低い時とはどのような時でしたか?
-スピーカーが直面した最も低い時は、自分の製品が成長目標を達成できず、それが彼自身の失敗であると感じた時です。
スピーカーはどのようにして自己評価と製品評価を分離しましたか?
-スピーカーは、自己の成功メトリックと製品の成功メトリックを分離し、製品の失敗から自己価値感を分離することで、自己評価と製品評価を分けました。
スピーカーはなぜ「失敗は製品の失敗であり、自分自身の失敗ではない」と主張するのですか?
-スピーカーは、自己価値感と製品の成功を分離し、製品の失敗を単なる学習の機会と見なすことで、より健康的な失敗との関係を築きたいと考えています。
スピーカーはどのようにして自己強韧性を構築しましたか?
-スピーカーは、自己強韧性を構築するために、失敗を学習の機会とし、自己評価と製品評価を分離し、自己批評を通じて感情的な距離を生み出しました。
スピーカーはどのようにしてより効果的な失敗分析ツールを構築しましたか?
-スピーカーは、失敗を通じて経験を積み、なぜ製品が失敗するのかをより正確に診断する能力を高め、より効果的な失敗分析ツールを構築しました。
スピーカーはどのようにして自己への厳しさをコントロールしていますか?
-スピーカーは、製品の最悪の批評者になることで自己への厳しさをコントロールしており、これにより製品と自己価値感との間に感情的な距離を保っています。
スピーカーはなぜ「自己への厳しさ」を大切にしていますか?
-スピーカーは、自己への厳しさが製品と自己価値感との間に感情的な距離を生み出し、より客観的に製品を評価し、改善につながると考えています。
Outlines
🚀 キャリアのスタートと挑戦
スクリプトの第1段落では、話者は自分のキャリアを振り返り、最初の1か月で初めての機能を出荷し、1年目に大きなプロジェクトを成功させたと語ります。しかし、その後のキャリアでは、成功を収めながらも、最初の機能が人々に嫌われ、最初の大プロジェクトは1人の顧客のみに使用され、ゼロから作った製品が成長目標に達しなかったという失敗も経験しています。話者は、LinkedInのプロフィールには書き留めない失敗について触れ、それが「影のキャリア」と呼ばれる自分の失敗を共有することを望んでいます。そして、自身の失敗との関係を理解するために、祖父母の時代に戻ることで物語を始めます。
🔄 失敗から学び、成長する
第2段落では、話者は自分の祖父母や親の成功への期待と、それが自分に与えた影響について語ります。祖父母は独裁者サラザルの下でポルトガルで教育を受け、逆境を乗り越えて成功しました。父親も大学を卒業し、コンピューターサイエンスの博士号を取得しました。話者は、家族からの期待に応えるために、失敗は許されないと感じ、それがキャリアの初期段階でどのように影響を与えたかについて説明します。また、HuddleのiOSアプリを担当し、クォーターコミットメントというシステム下で製品マネージャーとしてどのようにプレッシャーを感じ、期限内に機能をリリースするよう努力したかについても話します。
📈 失敗を通じて製品を改善する
第3段落では、話者はAndroidアプリの改善に取り組むよう頼まれた際に、どのようにアプローチを変更し、失敗を早期に認識し、改善につながるようにしたかについて説明します。ユーザーとのコミュニケーションを強化し、彼らの問題を理解するために、データベースを参照し、AndroidからウェブブラウザでHuddleプラットフォームにアクセスしたユーザーに連絡しました。その後、ユーザーテストを行い、アプリの可用性と発見性を改善しました。しかし、成長目標に達しなかったため、話者は自己評価と製品の失敗を個人的な失敗に感じ、その影響について語ります。
💔 個人的な失敗と感情的な回復
第4段落では、話者は製品の失敗を個人的な失敗に感じ、それが感情的回復に与えた影響について詳しく説明します。製品マネージャーとしてのキャリアで直面する不確実性と複雑さを克服するために、感情的な回復力を身につけることが重要だと指摘し、自分自身がどのように感情的な回復力を獲得し、製品の失敗と個人の自己評価を分離し、より健全な成功と失敗の関係を築くかについて話します。
🛑 失敗から学び、前進する
最後の段落では、話者は失敗を前進するためのアドバイスを提供し、自己と製品の成功を分離し、感情的に安全な環境で失敗と学習を促すことの重要性を強調します。また、製品の成功指標と個人の成功指標を分離し、自己批評を通じて感情的な距離を生み出し、失敗を改善の機会として捉えることの大切さを語ります。そして、自己への厳しい批判を通じて製品の不十分な点を認識し、製品の成功と自己の成長を分離することで、製品マネージャーとして成長し続ける方法についても触れています。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡キャリア
💡失敗
💡製品マネージャー
💡成長
💡影響
💡期限
💡リスク管理
💡自己評価
💡感情的な強靱さ
💡成功のメトリック
Highlights
The speaker's first feature was met with universal dislike due to session timing issues.
Their first major project was only utilized by a single customer.
The speaker's initial product failed to meet growth targets and was overshadowed by their LinkedIn profile's success.
The concept of 'shadow couriers' is introduced as the unspoken failures that lurk in one's career.
A personal narrative is shared to illustrate the evolution of the speaker's relationship with failure.
The speaker's grandparents' resilience and success in the face of adversity are highlighted.
The family's expectation of success and the pressure it put on the speaker are discussed.
The speaker's early career at Huddle and the pressure of meeting quarterly commitments are described.
The negative impact of focusing on shipping on time rather than end-user impact is explored.
The speaker's transition from 'failure is not an option' to 'fail fast and early' in product development is detailed.
A strategy for de-risking product development by understanding end-user problems is shared.
The importance of user testing in the product development process is emphasized.
The speaker's experience with the Android app and the challenges of meeting growth targets are discussed.
The realization that personal failure is not the same as product failure and the need for emotional resilience.
The speaker's journey to separate self-worth from product outcomes and the benefits of doing so.
Advice on creating emotional resilience and a healthier relationship with failure in product management.
The importance of distinguishing between personal and product success metrics to maintain emotional distance.
Encouragement to view failure as an opportunity to improve and the speaker's personal mantra.
The conclusion with a call to action to not let fear of failure hinder career progression.
Transcripts
today I'd like to tell you about my
career this isn't so far in my first
month I shipped my first ever feature in
my first year I shipped my first ever
big project and fast forward to today I
work with multiple teams in a company
where products that I look after working
and growing 10 times year-on-year twice
this is also my career not so good now
huh my first ever feature was hated by
everyone
no one likes sessions timing out my
first ever big project was only ever
used by one customer the product I
created from scratch didn't reach its
growth goals and it was can't behind our
pristine beautiful LinkedIn profiles are
the spots of sore failure the bruises
they're dare they're hidden and we never
talk about them and we all have them
this is what I call our shadow couriers
they're lurking there and we never talk
about it so that's what I want to do
today I want to tell you about my shadow
courier so we don't really talk about
shadow careers because there are
essentially stories of failure right so
to understand my relationship with
failure I want to go back I want to go
back to my grandparents and why does
this matter to you I want to tell you
how my relationship with failure has
changed over time
oh it's made me a braver stronger bolder
product manager so that hopefully you
two can do the same so let's go back to
my grandparents shall we here they are
these are my grandparents Cecilia and
Claudia they grow up
in Portugal at a time where most people
had a fourth-grader education they faced
an oppressive regime under the
dictatorship of Salazar Cecilia and
Claudio didn't just finish 4th grade
they went on to become primary school
teacher and a headmaster for them
failure was just was just not an option
and they succeeded over and over again
despite adversity so when they had
children my dad they passed us on to him
here's my dad looking rather cool and my
mom my parents were the first people in
our family to ever go to university and
not only that they went on to get PhDs
in computer science overachieving every
step of the way you see in my family
success was just expected my mom used to
say to me like her dad used to say to
her my job is to put food on the table
your job is to get good grades I grew up
with this amazing magnet from the Apollo
13 mission on the fridge door every time
I wanted some milk every time I wanted
some orange juice failure is not an
option so in the first phase of my
career
this is what I took with me failure is
not an option and this is where he got
me
so let me tell you how I got here the
first products I ever worked on fresh
I'd out of university was the huddle iOS
app and at a time at huddle and this
thankfully as long since changed we had
something called cordially commitments
and quarterly commitments are really
great and really useful tool for our
salespeople they are a set of features
of product managers commits to
delivering on time during that quarter
and it allowed them to sell things that
didn't exist yet how great for them so
you can imagine that this stuff was
being promised to customers and missing
the end of quarter deadline was a big
no-no so here I am failures not an
option
quarterly commitments what do I do well
success is shipping on time so I double
down on estimating months and months of
work so we could ship on time estimating
everything upfront so we could only
commit to the things that would make it
to the deadline so we could not fail in
practice this meant I was locking my
team in rooms for hour is excruciating
over months and months of work I would
cut scope as a deadline approach like
Matt I drove our darest designer Rosanna
insane as I cut down removed all the
light everything that could put our risk
the fact that we were gonna make it on
time for that deadline so Christmas
comes around and the UK we have this
thing called Secret Santa I don't know
if you heard of it
essentially your colleagues put
everyone's name in it in a in a in a
Santa hat and you take it out and there
you have it someone
then you have to give a secret presence
to and maybe you've guessed it this is
what I got
I got this wonderful mug in my Secret
Santa and I still don't know who gave it
to me
by thinking that failure was not an
option I chose the easiest definition of
success shipping on time it's far easier
to ship on time than to actually have an
impact in your end-users and your
customers and your business by obsessing
with meeting this ultimately arbitrary
deadline I was starving my colleagues of
experimentation time of learnings I was
alienating them and getting amazing
passive-aggressive Christmas presents as
a result by not allowing ourselves to
fail we're not allowing our teams to
fail we're creating this high-pressure
environment where people wilt instead of
flourished my invitation to you is to
revise the pressure you put on
yourselves and on your team's not to
fail reflect on how that pressure might
be clouding your judgment just like it
did mine into focusing into an easy
success metric like shipping on time
rather than the most important and real
metric of business and end-user impact
so fast forward a year or so into being
a product manager I was asked if I
wanted to take on our Android app it had
been built a couple of years ago by some
contractor and it was really
embarrassing it was becoming more and
more of a requirement to close deals so
by this time I was really keen to show I
had learned I was keen to show that I
was ready to move on from my dictator
mug base so failure is not an option was
begrudge idli set-aside for something
closer to fail fast and early and it
wasn't really clear to me yet how I was
gonna do that in practice but everywhere
I looked everyone I talked to everything
I
red said this is how you build
successful products so I was really keen
to give it a go so release schedules got
replaced with objectives and key results
and I was ready to fail fast and early
de-risking as many aspects of the
product as I could so to do this I
created this mental map of the reasons
of why products fail now being a b2b to
be company huddle had historically
struggled with speaking with the end
users that we're going to use our
product as opposed to our buyers who we
knew really well we often many layers
removed from the person actually
delivering and receiving the impact we
wanted to for them so for me this was
the biggest risk I wanted to know that
the problem did exist for those people
so I did this in a sneaky way I went
into our database and looked at all the
users that I'd recently accessed the
huddle platform on a web browser from an
Android phone and I sent them something
that at the time was very fashionable a
clickbait email can you help
I was really told off our sales team our
customer success team
susannah you just can't get in touch
with customers like that I've been in a
meeting I didn't know you talked to them
oh my god anyway it worked
people responded people are really
enthusiastic to talk to us and they were
willing to share with us the problems
they had and what they wanted to do when
they were accessing the web on their
Android and all those conversations
turns into us being able to very clearly
articulate what problems they had a
salesperson needed to access material
shared by their team while in between
meetings someone wanted to approve a
file to unblock their colleague back at
the office while they were traveling
and it went on and I filled a wall with
post-it notes and I said the problems
exist next up I wanted to de-risk
usability and discoverability and we did
this with loads of user testing and we
got things wrong we failed and then we
fixed it and we did this without
shipping any code and I was so proud til
Facinelli
yeah I'm doing it and next we wanted to
make sure it was feasible so we built
the smallest possible app and in our
release notes because we knew it was the
smallest possible app we managed
expectations and we said we promise
there'll be more goodness to come later
and we booby-trapped the app with
countless analytics and I anxiously
measured our active users and core flows
so there you have it
everything's ticked we can go we kept
shipping and we kept growing always
failing fast and validating usability
beforehand and things were amazing until
well the numbers stalled we kept
iterating we kept trying to solve
different more complex use cases we
thought this this is the thing this is
going to unlock more value this is going
to bring more customers to our product
and nothing worked we had failed early
and now we were failing late our product
just wasn't meeting our growth targets
and I looked around I just couldn't
understand why
the engineers were shipping every week
in a company that had historically been
shipping every month
the designers we're speaking to
end-users in a company that only ever
talked to buyers it must be me right my
product failed I failed and this was a
particularly low point right
I cried in a bathroom I ran to a church
and cried I'm not religious I was crying
not because my product had failed I was
crying because I felt I had failed my
sense of self-worth and my products were
one in the same
I was conflating product failure with
personal failure and I was burning out
and it's not like I wasn't ready to fail
in small ways I knew this was celebrated
I knew this was valuable but I wasn't
ready to fundamentally fail and while
now you know I can look back at why
products fail and go
yes Susana the problem did exist but you
didn't validate that it existed for
enough people or frequently enough but
at the time this didn't even feature on
my map because your experience massively
affects your ability to diagnose what
products fail and if you can't explain
it rationally you might as I did slip
into the irrational and just spiral into
a crazy of self blame and then a lack of
emotional resilience really holds you
back because the career in product
management is
just a ladder really from low complexity
to large complexity from cert from
certainty to uncertainty you might start
out small like I did with a small
feature then maybe you have multiple
features maybe you went to a new market
maybe you start your own company and as
you go up the harder and harder it is to
validate upfront that the bets you are
taking are going to work the more you go
up the more likely it is that you will
fail in bigger more spectacular more
public ways without resilience you might
burn out at one of the earlier steps in
the ladder like I did without resilience
you might be too scared to even take the
next step up I hope that my sharing my
story with you today
you can think about how to best create
emotional resilience in your work as a
product manager I hope you can develop a
healthier relationship with failure one
that works for you and that removes the
fear of big bets and helps you take that
step up the ladder the way that I did
this was to get another magnet you
didn't fail your product did and it's
not like I don't create disappointing
products anymore right
my shadow career is still alive and
kicking I don't feed oh the product I
created that won us our first ever Bank
turned out to be relatively niche but I
no longer feel like I'm personally a
failure I have separated my self-worth
from my products one way I did this was
by creating separate success metrics for
each my personal success success metrics
are things like what kind of impact am I
having in the world how am i doing on
this ladder
whereas my product success metrics are
more traditional things like key
performance indicators objectives key
results to create emotional distance I
am my products worst critic I can list
out an excruciating detail why why every
single one of the products I manage
today
sucks and this was something I just
wasn't able to do with the iOS or
Android apps I was too in love with my
work they were too tied to my sense of
self-worth and the products I work on I
don't feed oh these products I so
harshly criticize well they're currently
experiencing 10x growth and they are by
anyone's standards successful products
building value for thousands of
businesses and millions of users but
they are not me and they're not perfect
I went from a black-and-white success
and failure to actually seeing the grace
my products serve a purpose they succeed
at certain things they fail at others
and that's ok and if their time comes to
die
then they shall die and I will still
continue to grow as a product manager
with every product failure with every
product death my map of why products
fail gets busier my ability to diagnose
what makes a product fail gets more
accurate I'm more effective at reducing
that risk and when things get tough when
I'm tempted to shortcuts back into her
rationality I look back at my fridge to
help me bring back to rationality you
made the best possible decision with the
data and skills you had at the time you
are not your product you didn't fail
your product it so here's my advice to
you here's how I hope you too can fail
forward unafraid of your shadow career
boldly taking higher bigger steps of
that career ladder don't let fear of
failure trick you into choosing an easy
success metric like shipping on time
give yourself and your team an
emotionally safe space where failure and
learning are encouraged and if you can't
get that to happen if your company won't
support it find one that does separate
product success metrics from personal
success metrics build emotional distance
from your work by being your products
worst critic treats barak failure as an
opportunity
to sharpen your failure diagnosis tool
build up that map experience all of
those failures and finally be kind to
yourself find an effective mantra
whatever you need to put on your fridge
remember you are not your product thank
you
[Applause]
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