Get Unstuck
Recently, I wanted to validate a product idea to see if users felt it was valuable for them. I knew I could explain the concept abstractly and ask questions to understand what they thought about it, but I’d done that already with a few people and gotten some directionally positive feedback. I wanted to take it to the next level now and test it out to see what users would actually do with it.
The problem was that I had zero resources. We’ve all heard the proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Being in a situation where I had zero resources forced me to get creative. After feeling stuck and sitting on the idea for a while, I figured out a way that I could test my idea without building a thing! Finding a quick and dirty, low cost way to test an idea is one of my favorite strategies when making product decisions, because it allows me to gather data and lower risk before making a bigger investment decision.
One of the key trade-offs to not building anything was that I wouldn’t be testing an app, the environment that I ultimately envisioned the product to be in. Instead, I’d have to manually reach my group of test users via text. It was not scalable, but I needed to understand what use cases resonated with users and this was the fastest and cheapest way to test it.
I also worried that my test users would find getting texts to be intrusive. What if one of my texts interrupted them while they were in an important work meeting? Or what if was too late at night or too early in the morning? Despite the limitations, I decided to go ahead with my test and figured that I’d invest in building and getting the delivery mechanism right if there was enough user signal.
After running the test for a week, I sat down with each of the users and did an exit interview. I wanted to know what they thought about the idea - who they wanted to use it with, how they wanted to use it, and what would get them to want to use it more. There was a huge variety in what people wanted. Some saw it as a tool to up their game professionally, others saw it as a way to stay connected to family and friends. What was surprising, however, was the one thing that everyone agreed on... they preferred to have it delivered via text.
This insight was not what I’d sought to learn. It was a total accident, only because I needed to test cheaply. In hindsight, I’m so glad that I didn’t let the imperfection of the test stop me from running it. I would have missed out on an important learning.
Next time you’re feeling stuck:
Try introducing constraints. Having constraints can trigger more creative ideas, by forcing you to think beyond the status quo. Patricia Stokes, a psychologist with Columbia University, did an experiment that showed that rodents who could press a bar with only their right arms came up with many more ways to press the bar than rodents who could use both of their arms. Not having resources forced me to think of a way to test my idea using a hodgepodge of existing products.
Done is better than perfect. If you wait around for perfection, then you might never do anything. I had to remind myself not just to sit on my idea, but to do something about it. Whether you’re testing an idea or launching a full fledged feature, get it out the door, learn, and improve on it next time.
Look for opportunities anywhere, even accidents. Many famous inventions have been the results of accidents. When Dr. Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M, was trying to invent a super strong adhesive, he accidentally created a super weak adhesive instead. He realized that the super weak adhesive had potential, experimented for years on how it could be used, and eventually the Post-it note was born. As a PM, it’s hard to imagine how scrum teams would do brainstorming or planning sessions without Post-it notes! Don’t be too myopic about what you’re doing. Pay attention to what else you’re learning in your peripheral vision, and be open to adjusting your path to react to what happens.
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