Product Manage Your Life: Why Should You Do It, and How Do You Do It? — Stephanie Muxfeld

This is the first in a series of articles about applying product management principles to your life. As a consultant, I work with a lot of people who are so proficient at using these principles in their work, but their lives are a hot mess. Sometimes my life is a hot mess, too! But by incorporating principles that product managers use, we can reduce the amount of mess and increase our peace, joy, and satisfaction!

This first article will give you an introduction to the concept of using these product management principles in your life. We’ll run through a lightweight four-step process that can help you make any change you want in life. Then in subsequent articles we’ll dive deeper into each of the four steps, along with other relevant subjects. I will craft all the articles in this series to be about a five-minute read. I know you’re busy! I hope you’ll read a few, take away what you need, and leave the rest!

As always, reach out to me over social media or email if you’d like to chat or have topic suggestions!

What Does it Mean to Product Manage Your Life?

In software development, a product manager focuses on the problem that software is aiming solve. Then the product manager focuses on the right way to solve it, measuring whether it’s working, and making sure it’s continuing to evolve to meet new problems that arise. Daily a product manager does a bunch of other things too. Product management is actually a really hard job that few people do very well. But the problem and the customer should be at the center of it all.

When it comes to product managing your life, you are your customer. And you know your problems better than anyone else. Unhappy with your job? Unhappy with a relationship? Want to develop a skill? You can make a change. Product management can help you craft a plan, take small steps, measure your improvement, and pivot if what you’re trying isn’t working.

The Key Components of Product Managing Your Life

Getting started with this process is lightweight and you can do it right now. There are four basic steps, you can take a pass at them and then continue to do them over time, revising them as you go.

Understand Your Problem Space

What is going on in your life that you’d like to change? Start with one thing. What’s bothering you the most? What’s the thing that you can’t stop thinking about, the thing that keeps you up at night? Let’s start with that. It may not be the thing that everyone else thinks you should focus on, and that’s perfectly fine. It should be the thing that you want to focus on. You are your customer in this scenario, not everyone else. This is the time you get to be completely selfish and focus on solving your own problems, not the problems of everyone else in your world. So, pick your problem and get really clear on it.

We call this writing our problem statement, but it is only for you, so write it in a way that works for you. The one thing it needs to be is specific. A problem statement such as “Be less cluttered” isn’t going to help you much. A better version of that problem statement would be “Hold on to less stuff so that I create more space”. Be specific.

Know Your Why

Why does your problem matter to you? Why do you want to make a change? How will your life improve if you make this change? If you can’t articulate why you want to make a change, it’s going to be very hard to make the change stick.

Measure What Matters

How can you measure your change? This can be so hard! We struggle with this in the business world constantly. But pick something that you can measure. For our clutter example, a potential measure may be empty cabinets or drawers — can you get to just one empty drawer? Try to get creative and pick just one thing to start measuring. If you don’t have a measure you won’t know if your changes are working, so identify at least one measure.

Test and Iterate

This is my favorite part — try something and if it doesn’t work try something else. This entire process is meant to be lightweight and low investment. If something doesn’t work, it’s ok! Try something else! Keep trying until you find something that works. Find an easy way to keep track of what you’ve tried so you don’t repeat it. Write a list, make a spreadsheet, whatever is natural for you.

So often we get paralyzed by the fear of trying because we’re worried about failing. This happens both in the business world and in our personal life. Please give yourself permission to try, and to try again if the first try doesn’t work!

Next Time

I promised I’d keep these articles short! Next time we’ll dive deeper into understanding your problem space. How can you keep from getting overwhelmed when you have a bunch of things you’d like to change? How can you decide what to work on first? I definitely have some ideas for you on that topic!

Originally published at https://stephaniemuxfeld.com on January 13, 2020.