💁‍♀️ You didn't fail, your product did. Susana Lopes, Senior Product Manager @Onfido

Summary

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

00:00

🚀 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。

05:00

🔄 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。

10:02

📈 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。

15:07

💔 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。

20:10

🛑 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。

Keywords

💡キャリア

キャリアとは、個人が職業生活を通じて築く経歴や職種の変遷を指します。このビデオでは、講演者は自分のキャリアのスタートから成長、そして失敗から学んだことを共有しており、それが主題に密接に関係しています。例えば、講演者は最初の機能や大きなプロジェクトを届けた経験から、複数のチームと協力しながら製品を管理する立場に成長していると述べています。

💡失敗

失敗は、目標や期待に達することができなかったことです。ビデオでは、失敗が製品マネージャーのキャリアの重要な部分であり、それを乗り越えることで成長を遂げることが示されています。講演者は自分の失敗を共有し、それらから学んだことを説明しています。例えば、最初の機能が人々に嫌われたり、最初の大規模なプロジェクトが1人の顧客のみに使用されたりした経験が紹介されています。

💡製品マネージャー

製品マネージャーとは、製品の開発から市場投入までの全プロセスを監督する役割を担う人のことです。ビデオでは、講演者が製品マネージャーとして直面した課題や失敗、そしてそれらを克服する方法について語っています。製品マネージャーは、顧客のニーズを理解し、チームと協力して製品の成功に導くための戦略を策定することが求められます。

💡成長

成長は、ビデオの中心的なテーマの一つであり、個人や製品の進歩を意味します。講演者は、失敗を通じて自己成長を遂げ、より大胆で強固な製品マネージャーになることができました。また、製品の成長も繰り返し言及されており、講演が担当する製品が年々10倍の成長を遂げていることなどが触れられています。

💡影響

影響とは、ある行動や決定が他の人や物事に及ぼす結果を指します。ビデオでは、製品がエンドユーザーやビジネスに与える影響を追求することが製品マネージャーの重要な任務として強調されています。講演者は、製品が顧客の課題を解決するかどうかを理解することの重要性を語っています。

💡期限

期限は、ビデオ内で製品開発のプレッシャーや期待を象徴するキーワードです。講演者は、期限に製品を届けるために過度に焦点を合わせたことが、製品の質や顧客への影響を損なったと反省しています。期限に製品を届けるという成功のメトリックにとらわれすぎたことが、チームの創造性や学習の機会を奪ってしまったと指摘しています。

💡リスク管理

リスク管理とは、潜在的な問題や失敗を予見し、それらを最小限に抑える戦略を立てることです。ビデオでは、講演者が製品開発においてリスクを軽減するために行った取り組みが紹介されています。ユーザーテストや最小限のアプリの開発を通じて、製品の失敗を事前に検出し、改善につながそうとしています。

💡自己評価

自己評価は、個人が自身の能力や成果を客観的に判断することです。ビデオでは、講演者が製品の失敗を個人的な失敗と混同し、自己評価に影響を与えた経験について話しています。自己評価は、製品マネージャーが製品の成功や失敗を客観的に見つめ、改善につながる分析を立てるために重要です。

💡感情的な強靱さ

感情的な強靱さとは、困難や挑戦に直面しても、精神的な韧性を持ち続ける能力です。ビデオでは、講演者が感情的な強靱さを身につけることで、製品の失敗から回復し、より大きなリスクを取ることを恐れずにキャリアを進めることができました。感情的な強靱さは、製品マネージャーにとって、継続的な成長と成功に不可欠です。

💡成功のメトリック

成功のメトリックとは、製品やプロジェクトの成功を評価する指標です。ビデオでは、講演者が期限に製品を届けることよりも、製品がエンドユーザーやビジネスに与える影響を重視するよう心がけたことを強調しています。成功のメトリックは、製品マネージャーが目標を設定し、達成度を測定する際に使用されます。

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]