Embrace risk-taking (and lily pads) to unlock growth

I’ve worked with a lot of people who must be right - all the time! Execs who could not stand having their opinions questioned. Emerging talent that believed getting ahead meant always being first with an answer. Managers who took “empowerment” to imply they “empowered” others by telling them what to do.

Culture and companies often favor the smartest, the fastest, the best. I was reading an article by Thomas Curran who is the author of The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. He begins by saying

The people who believe being right is the “right” thing to do (or be) could have impossible expectations and goals for themselves - so much so that they struggle in scenarios where there is no one right answer, where there is no way to know who or what could possibly win (prior newsletter).

They also could simply be brilliant but nasty. Before, when culture was something you tried to put down instead of cultivate, companies often accepted individuals who were extremely skilled at their jobs but toxic towards others. Leaders looked the other way when the person had to always be right, because they delivered results, overlooking the trampled people and spirits they left in their wake.

I believe anyone can do amazing things if they are willing to take the risk to be wrong, to fail - as long as they have courage to step up and try again. Which is likely why I favor rapid experimentation over big bang, perfectionism. Caveat being, I’m a product manager not a doctor.

Thomas Curran notes perfectionists often push themselves to the point of burnout, seeking only scenarios where they can succeed. In turn, they will sabotage situations where they might not “win” or “be right”. They strive to win because of “survivor bias”.

Today I’d like to encourage all of us to look beyond the person who must have the right answer and does everything in their power to ensure success is attributed only to them. Instead, consider my prior post, and the thoughts I share below.

Listen to the ones who say “we” instead of “I”. Seek out people who build up their colleagues and have their back. Encourage those who see setbacks, failures, and things not going quite as planned as an opportunity to learn, to get better. Correct, they are not perfectionists. They have faults and don’t know all the answers. But, what they do know is even more important. They know how to get back up and try again.

I’ve been thinking a lot about failure as I’m speaking at the Product-Led Summit on 20 September in Oakland (yes, the site and banner below mention San Francisco. That’s like saying Brooklyn is Manhattan. They’re both amazing - they’re just not the same place.) I love speaking at conferences even though it makes me nervous. I’ve forgotten my notes and said the wrong name. But, I keep seeking out opportunities.

The Product-Led Summit is an amazing place to ask your burning questions in every session and unlock your - and your product's - potential. Network, collaborate, and exchange ideas with other individuals who share your drive to shape the future of product-led innovation. You can use the discount code Diana20 for 20% off tickets. 

Power of failure: Lessons from top companies

Even though the article is from 2017, the principles remain extremely relevant. Coca-Cola didn’t stop innovating despite the “New Coke” failure. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told his team to “take more risk…to try more crazy things…we should have a higher [show] cancel rate.” Then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, shared after buying Whole Foods, “If you’re going to take bold bets, they’re going to be experiments. And if they’re experiments, you don’t know ahead of time if they’re going to work.”

In each situation, the leader pushed their employees to realize “failure is not a bug of learning, it’s the feature.” They created a space where their employees felt safe to try and to fail, encouraging them to share the learning along the way (tip of the hat to Google’s project Aristotle).

Leaders spouting the importance of failure is not enough to let innovation occur. They also need to back it up with action. If an individual tries something and it doesn’t work, their career should not experience a setback. Instead of only promoting people because of a successful product launch, factor in the experiments + learning + sharing of insight. What did they learn from the experience? Did they share the learning? As a result, did more - potentially bigger - wins occur elsewhere in the organization? Did they empower their team to try again, to brush off their discouragement and find a new path to success?

Take Sara Blakely whose father encouraged her to fail. Originally she wanted to go to law school, but she failed the LSAT. After a few more mishaps, an idea led her to found Spanx - which is a billion-dollar business.

Yes, we all want a homerun, but only 15.9% of hits in major league baseball games are home runs - which is high given 5% of new products succeed and 10% of startup companies make it (link).

Returning back to the top part of today’s newsletter, also consider what success actually means at your organization. If you only promote people who “succeed”, does it mean people practice “loss aversion”, such as avoiding risk at all costs because they cannot stand to lose (rather than play to win)? Is it considered “ok” to sabotage or put down others because they tried a new approach which did not succeed? If so, it could be time to rethink how you promote or acknowledge wins in your organization.

The question then becomes, where do you draw the line? To go back to Marty Cagan (this time Inspired), a strong product culture means that the team understands the importance of continuous and rapid experimentation - e.g. testing and learning. They understand that they need to make mistakes in order to learn, but they need to make them quickly and mitigate the risks.

Mitigating risks in experimentation is where systematic problem solving comes in. Experimentation is encouraged as long as it is done systematically through:

• Relying on “hypothesis testing”, rather than guesswork, for diagnosing problems

• Insisting on data, rather than assumptions, as background for decision making

• Pushing beyond the obvious, even when conventional wisdom says it is unnecessary

• Using the above points to better manage experiments and preemptively catch risks

A great example is Amazon where Jeff Bezos described Type 1 (irreversible) and Type 2 (reversible) experiments. You don’t need to deliberate over easily reversible, Type 2, experiments. 

Another use case is Pendo where a matrix for prioritizing research and minimizing risk is applied. 

• Ship it & Measure (High problem clarity, Low risk) - Skip primary user research, make an informed hypothesis, experiment, monitor & learn

• Research Light (Low problem clarity, Low risk) - Lean research, increase problem clarity while minimizing resource investment

• Design heavy (High problem clarity, High risk) - Test via a design prototype representative of answering the critical problem

• Research heavy (Low problem clarity, High risk) - Research-driven, slow down and invest in the research

Creating “the permission to fail [should be] energizing” and empowering. As Patrick Doyle, the CEO of Domino’s Pizza says, “There is no learning without failing, there are no successes without setbacks.”

Are you holding yourself back?

Have you decided that you will never succeed, so you have stopped trying? Based on the environment we face at work or at home, we can find ourselves limiting our options by deciding for others. As highlighted in this article, “it’s far easier not to fail when you haven’t tried. It’s far easier to not be wrong when you’re not putting yourself out there.”

• We put off doing things because we’re unsure how they will turn out.

• We avoid situations where we may have to try something new in front of other people.

• We avoid doing things we know will improve our lives because we don’t have all the necessary skills.

• We give ourselves the illusion of growth by reading, researching, watching videos… Anything but doing the thing and risking being judged by others.

The good news is most people are probably not paying attention. They’re thinking about themselves - not you. The ones you should care about, would be happy to see you succeed and are rooting for you to try.

So how do you get started? Tackling a big project or problem can feel overwhelming at the start. I work in education, and we often talk about efficacy - the desired outcome or result. As it can take a number of years to see if a change has truly occurred, we have to break down the steps into shorter milestones. A partner referred to these smaller, nearer term objectives as lily pads.

Even though success is not guaranteed, you can use each “lily pad” as an opportunity to test yourself or your hypothesis more quickly and with less risk. For the first lily pad, define the incremental results you need to achieve in the next quarter (“now” for folks who speak in roadmap lingo) to reach the desired longer term outcome. The next lily pad is a bit further out, say six months (“next”). It may change based on the learning from the first lily pad, yet it remains to push you to continue making progress. The subsequent lily pad could be nine months out (“later”). It’s vaguer as it will be informed based on lily pads one and two. Yet, it’s there to remind you to keep trying, to keep experimenting. The key is to keep hopping from lily pad to lily pad.

What happens if you don’t make it to the first, second, or third lily pad? That’s ok. The article recommends experimenting like a scientist.

Judge your progress based on your learning, e.g. did you learn something new. If so, you were successful, and you’re ready for the next lily pad. By focusing on learning, some of the fear can be pushed to the side. As long as the definition of success is learning, failing becomes an opportunity to learn - and succeed - again.

Still not convinced? If you’re facing pushback to creating a learning culture, take a broader look at your organization. “Change has to start at the top because otherwise defensive senior managers are likely to disown any transformation in reasoning patterns coming from below.” (HBR) You can start with your team and by tying learning directly to addressing strategic business problems.

Even without your own team, you can make a difference. Nobl shares the following tips:

• Prime people for success. Point out examples of how the organization or individuals have been successful in the past

• Focus on the zone of control. Focus on making change where you do have influence. For example, try running a meeting differently or rethink a report.

• Try. Get out of hypotheticals and “what ifs” and actually try something, and then hold a retrospective. What worked? What’s different as a result?  

• Create a community of change. Find other individuals who are also making change, meet regularly and exchange ideas to remind each other that they’re not the only ones trying to do things differently.

Trying new things and taking risks can be tiring. Remember it’s ok to take a break. Praise yourself for taking a step. The next one will be easier and so on.

The same approach enabled me to start this newsletter. I gave myself a deadline to produce the first one. It was tricky and awkward and fun. Since then I keep hopping from lily pad to lily pad. I keep going, publishing a new article every two or so weeks. It’s still scary when I hit publish - but it’s getting easier too.

I’d love to hear from you. What is something you want to start and need a bit of encouragement to kick off? Remember I’m here to help and cheer you on.

Enjoy!