Is “Fail Fast, Fail Often” a Dangerous Mantra for Product Managers?
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VP of Strategy and Product Management at Nextgen Clearing in Telecommunication8 months ago
Yes. That’s a huge waste or resources, time, and credibility. If a product managers key role is to lead an organization forward constantly failing means the PM hasn’t done the necessary homework and prep before prioritizing the organization. While mistakes happen, one of the most critical PM roles is to help to ensure the org organization doesn't fail, doesn't waste resources , knows where it's going etc. "Fail Fast, Fail Often" absolves a PM of that responsibility and calls into question why PMs exist.VP of Product Management in Software8 months ago
Great answer Steven, thanks. So how do you balance tests/innovations versus "sure bets"?
VP of Strategy and Product Management at Nextgen Clearing in Telecommunication8 months ago
#1 is talk to your customers. If we build software / solutions to sell them…then go to the people who are actually making the buying decision. This includes roadmap ideas, competitor response, UI/UX changes, etc. Ive found clients are almost always willing to give you that direct feedback to prioritize and test options. #2…work with your engineering partners. This is key to evolving an idea and innovation into something greater.
CPO8 months ago
Context is key here. I think we need to add ...but always learn. Failure can lead to our greatest discoveries and drive true innovation; especially if we are disciplined and looking for the benefit of a fail.The mantra isn't a 'hall pass' for reckless behavior but one that enables agility in mindset and process. Example: The hypothesis driving a two-week sprint fails to deliver as expected but reveals a positive unintended consequence - how to save time and resources for the duration of the project. The wise PM finds valuable learnings from this sprint; possibly never exposed, if not for the mindset that we have to try and maybe fail before we can learn. When we fail, we need to be looking for learnings and adjust accordingly.
I think this is a human mantra. It doesn't target failure as the outcome but permits us to remove the fear of failure when acting on our best data, experience, and forward hypotheses. This is a mantra that says it's OK to learn.
Director of Data8 months ago
A statement like this without sufficient context may be a dangerous mantra for anyone, not just product managers. Under clearly defined and agreed product metrics, if the product target goals/vision require experimentation heavily, failing fast rather than late is better. Also, if product improvisation is part of the plan for the desired state, failing "often" can be a choice. In both cases, the gap between current and desired outcomes should continue to narrow. This gap should be measured using product metrics within the constraints of Goodhart's law. Finally, it is often the narrative that matters to the consumers.Director of Product Management in Software8 months ago
I think that the question here isn't about product managers failing because they're lazy or don't bother to talk to customers. I think this is more about how much risk your company is willing to take to build something truly innovative. If you go ask your customers what to build, you're going to end up evolving your product, but you won't produce anything revolutionary. This low risk profile might work alright for you and your customers - at least in the short term. However, if someone out there is willing to take more risk, they might produce a product that blows yours out of the water. That being said, I think it's best done in the same way you would manage your investment portfolio - have some product managers producing low risk product improvements and having some on the fail fast, fail often path. And anyone on the fail fast, fail often path should be able to produce very valuable information on why something failed and what can be done to get closer to success next time. If they can't, then they aren't really adding the expected amount of value.
Enterprise Application Platform Manager in IT Services8 months ago
Any 4-word Mantra can be *dangerous*:)Fail-fast and Fail-often has been a mantra in many high tech companies incl. the one I am in - Google.
The premise that FFFO as a great organizational culture are:
- To be a truly innovative organization, continuous trying is a must.
- The best by-product of trying something new is learning from the real failures you experience first-hand.
- The cost of the failure should be reasonable, since you do not want a huge failure to blow the whole organization away.
- To minimize the cost of the needed failures by trying things new, fail-fast and fail-often is the right way to achieve it.