Having an Opinion vs Being Opinionated
I once witnessed a Product Manager who mistakenly believed that having an opinion is equal to being opinionated. From my observations, PMs often make such statements when the presented opinion doesn't align with their own.
So what's the difference between having an opinion and being opinionated? Both are certainly related, but the key difference is the intensity one is willing to apply in order to defend their opinion. For instance, let's imagine you're at a café with your friends to have tea and cakes. You think carrot cake is the best flavor, so when it's your turn, you ask for one. You know your friends like other flavors - maybe chocolate, red velvet, or apple strudel - and that's perfectly fine with you. You might even be curious about why they like those flavors and are willing to try them next time.
In this same scenario, being opinionated would mean not only do you think carrot cake is the best type, but you also strongly believe it's the only cake worth having. You might express this view to your friends, insisting that carrot cake is superior to all other flavors. Even if your friends explain why they love chocolate or red velvet cake, you're less open to trying them because you're so sure that carrot cake is the best.
Now, the scenario above makes it sound like being opinionated is a bad thing. It's not. At least not always. Having an opinion is natural and important. Defending it is part of your job as a Product Manager. The keyword here is balance. Not every question deserves an opinionated answer. It's your job to identify the key moments of your product journey where being opinionated is key to making a visible difference and bringing your product to the next level. It is you that is controlling the steering wheel and it is your product that requires an overall opinionated approach in order to ensure consistency and direction.
However, bear in mind that while being opinionated can accelerate decisions and gives you a clear direction, it could accelerate wrong decisions and lead you down an incorrect path.
The good news is [..] you came a long way. The bad news is [..] you went the wrong way.
- By J. Cole
The following paragraphs explore how to increase the correctness of one's opinions and, more importantly, how to form an opinion in the first place.
Listen to Your Users
There is an art to listening itself, and many books have already been written about this (not just in a business context, but also within inter-human relationships). I won't be able to explain here how to become a better listener; that's something I still need to master myself.
I am, however, able to tell you what (not) to listen to when speaking with your users: don't spend too much time on solutions. First and foremost, learn about their problems. Learn what they are trying to achieve and why they have the problems they are having in the first place. Listen to their journey. Figure out what bothers them the most in their existing environment. Look out for recurring patterns if competing products come up during your conversations with your users regularly.
It might be difficult to get into deeper conversations with users at first, but after doing this for a while, you will be able to better steer the direction towards the problems you want to hear more about. Listening to your users won't only give you deeper insights into the problems they are trying to solve, but also how your product is (not) catering to those needs. It's important to stay humble here. At least in most cases, I don't think it's worth being opinionated with your users. Instead, this is where you actively seek different perspectives.
Stay Informed
Staying on top of data from your own products and its usage, market trends, user metrics, and business KPIs is a lot. The good news is, not everything has to be done continuously here and/or can be automated.
Looking at data from your own products should only answer questions. In its broadest sense, that question can be "How are users using my product?". The gist here is that data collection and data analysis have no point if they don't lead towards continuous learning, or ideally, improvement.
If you're working in a relatively mature company, most of this data should be easily accessible. Unless you are working for an early stage company that hasn't launched yet, user metrics such as weekly active users or customer lifetime value, and business KPIs such as revenue and churn should be easily available to you. Understanding your company's overall metrics and their story will give you a better understanding of users and your own product metrics.
Product-specific metrics that are targeting a subset of the overall platform are your own responsibility. Your job as a product manager doesn't stop after a feature launch. You need to figure out how to measure the usefulness of your feature. Again, focus on answering concrete questions. Data collection without a clear objective is futile.
"Internal" data, such as the ones just described, paired with "external" data such as market trends and competitive analysis will give you an edge. For me, the best way of gathering "external" data so far has been through extensive reading and listening to your user persona. Note, I'm intentionally not saying customers here, since that implies that other folks don't have an opinion on competing products, which is not true. If you're working on a product that targets Engineers, it makes sense to talk to Engineers at your own company for this (more about this soon).
There are people who spend a lot of their private time reading blog posts, studying competitors, and/or reading books that generally relate to their work. You are of course free to choose that path. In my experience, this has been extremely helpful. However, the obvious disadvantage is the lack of a private life. I'm seeing more and more success by skipping this part and instead building a stronger network of professionals that you can ask your questions to.
All in all, once you have a view over "internal" and "external" data and you know the story behind them, you will likely form stronger opinions. The beauty of this is that once you start being opinionated, the questions you ask your users will tell you even more about the things you care about. However, don't ask questions that inherently just confirm your opinions. You must avoid such bias at all costs.
Seek Diverse Perspectives
The practice of seeking diverse perspectives is not only a matter of equity and fairness but a strategy for success. It's crucial for product managers to actively engage with stakeholders, peers, and team members in meaningful dialogues. Each of these individuals carries a unique set of experiences, knowledge, and ideas shaped by their specific roles and backgrounds. These diverse viewpoints can significantly enrich your understanding of the product, its users, and the market.
For instance, a marketing team member might have insights on customer perceptions and competitors that can shape your product positioning. Similarly, engineers can provide perspectives on technical feasibility and innovation. By synthesizing these diverse viewpoints, you're more likely to form a well-rounded, comprehensive opinion that reflects a variety of considerations. This practice not only leads to better decision-making but also fosters an inclusive culture that values and leverages the collective wisdom of the team.
Something I recently discovered: talking with Sales folks provides you unique insights on incentives and on the sales process itself that your product goes through. Ask yourself: what are the conversation starters that open the door for your Sales organization to go and sell your product? What core problems are you solving?
Outro
Being opinionated can be a good thing. It all depends on the situation. The easiest way of becoming opinionated is to maintain constant contact with any stakeholder in your product's lifecycle, be it the user themselves, your marketing, engineering, or sales team.
You can come off as dismissive, stubborn, and closed-to-collaboration while being opinionated. These are inter-human relationships that you need to manage at the end of the day. It might sound narcissistic, but if you are fundamentally convinced that your take on things is the right one, then you need to keep pushing. Hopefully, you manage to do this without burning bridges.