The first is by the terrific Theresa Torres (@ttorres) on her Product Talk blog, on how to commit but not overcommit to a new idea, feature, or strategy – Don’t Overcommit to a Bad Idea:
Whether you are considering a new feature, experimenting with a new user acquisition strategy, or considering a shift in your overall strategy, tripwires can ensure that you don’t commit too soon.
The second article is by the equally terrific Jim Anderson (@drjimanderson) on his Accidental Product Manager blog on why product managers should not listen to their gut on many decisions:
One of the biggest problems that product managers run into when it comes time for them to make a decision is that they then tend to “narrow frame” the decision by considering only one option. The question that they are now trying to answer is “should I choose this one” instead of “from these options, which one should I choose?”
Both of these suggestions echo the excellent decision-making guidelines laid out by the Chip and Dan Heath in one of my favorite books of 2013, Decisive. Bottom line – you can make much better decisions if you follow the guidelines that Theresa, Jim, and the brothers Heath suggest.
Thanks for the great referrals, Nils!
Happy to publicize tools like Reqqs!
Those sound like fun exercises. Were they research studies, or team-building exercises? They sound like the latter, especially since your impression is that they were designed to teach participants a lesson, rather than as neutral experiments to learn how people behave or what the outcomes of different behaviors are.
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I think you might have intended to comment on a different article. I think the goal of most of these exercises, however, are to learn lessons that we can apply in our day-to-day decision making as product managers.