Today marked the beginning of Q4 2022 and to be honest I was feeling a bit relaxed after the chores of the planning session I conducted with my team in late September to prioritize the items for Q4. With this, the hustle to plan for H12023 started. As I started to build the strategy for complex initiatives and wrote the use cases, my mind got confused and struggle to grapple with multiple scenarios and edge cases that could possibly exist (in total 20 scenarios, with each starting from order on the website to completing delivery to customers).
I started to draw them out as a mind map on Miro it became such an extensive web of lines that I got confused just by looking at it. Some use cases had an overlap, while some got blocked by another user case. On top of this, the Operational process outline (which controls the narrative of our operations and will use these cases on the floor to move packages/cartons in real-time) was so confusing that I decided to pause the day’s efforts.
My struggle right now is to bring the idea in my head on paper for my engineers to code and the operational team to train workers on the floor. There are times when in your head there is a hazy outlook but as soon as you start the process of documentation, the cloud of uncertainty takes over. This is why I believe, good product managers are good writers. If as a PM you are able to articulate your complicated thoughts into words for others to consume and act you have done your job.
It’s not that I am not good at writing but I guess when scenarios start to complicate I will need to be patient with the process of articulating and bringing thoroughness into my work. The good part about writing is, it tells you if know the concepts or not. If words fail you, it’s an indication that more work is required.
Tomorrow is a new day. I will start fresh and hopefully, reach a stage where words are as clear as the picture in my head. It is such a deceiving narrative but it is the truth of being a product manager.
Cheers
