A VP of Product on Why Curiosity Matters
Lessons from a 20-minute chat with a VP of Product, and why curiosity is one of the golden skills a Product Manager should develop
I walked into a room where they were about to start a fireside chat with a VP of Product - a Q&A session with a small audience of Product Managers, including me. I sat on one of the aisle chairs as an easy way to stand up and give my talk when my turn came (I wrote about this talk in this post).
As I looked around the room to see more people trickling in, I decided to get coffee from the breakfast spread by the door. As I poured, I chimed into one of the side conversations I overheard from a small group; they were sharing thoughts on the general “return to the office” debacle, and the love of Kindle as a product. They were all easy to talk to, particularly one man who made great recommendations about the Kindle.
Thirty seconds later, the event emcee called us to get started. The man with the great Kindle recommendations walks up to the stage - he happened to be the VP of Product we were all there to see. As my realization sank in, I sat and smiled internally, eager to listen to him.
Two minutes into the fireside chat, the emcee asks the VP to share what he thinks is one of the most important attributes or skills a Product Manager should have; his answer - curiosity. I could not help but smile even wider. The talk I was about to give shortly after was about curiosity (as is the very essence of this space), and he had just blown open the intro door to that.
The VP said that some of the best Product Managers he has seen have a big curiosity appetite, it is what compells them to challenge the status quo, to dig deeper into understanding a problem space, even if the problem seems trivial.
He offered an example where he would spend days on a customer anecdote - even if it was just one person complaining or offering feedback about something. He would involve his team, asking “why” until finding the root cause. He would then share a clear explanation of what happened, and what processes or improvements the team would be implementing to ensure that wouldn’t happen again.
First of all, let’s take a moment to understand that this example comes from a VP of Product while in that role. He, of course, had a team to rely on, and they would do the groundwork of finding the cause. That said, even at that level, he took the time to ask questions about a seemingly small problem, that came from a single customer.
That example is very typical in a customer-obsessed environment, and from a curiosity-driven one. If we now look at the other side of the spectrum, big problems or big visions, it’s the same thing. You need to look at the world with curiosity, even if you are an individual contributor and not a VP. What is the next problem you want to solve? What will bring immense value? How can you share that opportunity with others?
Curiosity is the igniter to zeroing in on a problem (going deep), and zooming out to see the big picture. Curiosity is elastic, and it’s the fuel that keeps you asking questions.
A few more thoughts…
During the Q&A section of this fireside chat, I asked the VP how companies (and product managers) should think about investing or divesting in new products. His answer was a golden nugget that we should learn from; more on that in the next post.