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<\/figure>tl;dr Years ago, I read a parable of the river and the rock, and how this analogy compared to product management. Unfortunately. I don\u2019t recall the source of this parable, so I can\u2019t give proper credit. However, it is a bit of knowledge I feel should be carried on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, there are two forces at play when it comes to managing products: the river and the rock. The rock represents an unwavering stance or opinion that gets in the way of the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The river, in its attempt at reaching a goal, must confront the rock and determine the best course of action. It can go around, over, or beat at it, attempting to pummel it into sand. Oftentimes, possibly at all times, it employs more than one of these tactics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the rock is small, it\u2019s easy enough to run right over the rock. This holds true for objections during product plans. Small obstacles can be ignored without much impact on velocity. (Keep in mind, however, that small impacts do eventually build up and shouldn\u2019t be completely ignored.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This happens possibly many times per day. Comparisons could include minor clarifying questions from engineers or outlandish feature requests from customers. The key is realizing they are small and should not be any more that a mere bump on the journey. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Larger rocks will require the river to divert in its path, possible substantially. As product managers, we must be able to navigate around obstacles in order to keep moving forward. Hopefully, we can see it well in advance, and there\u2019s enough room to navigate around it. Any change in the resource triangle fits this bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In any case, the original analysis deemed product managers as the river. We cannot stand firm against the progress of our products. While there is an extreme requirement to find paths to success, we also need to understand when we need to be rocks, not as obstacles to success, but as firmly held beliefs in our products that cannot waver against forces counter to our endeavors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This can also happen often. I run into this usually when I\u2019m approached by a salesperson in the organization. (How many other PMs have a love\/hate relationship with sales?) It seems their deals are always revenue game-changers that can only be won if we commit to a feature within a specific timeline regardless of impacts to the roadmap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The default position in this scenario should be to hold your ground. It\u2019s seldom the tradeoff is worth it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, with enough time, even the sturdiest rock can be worn into submission. Just look at the Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are two forces at play when it comes to managing products: the river and the rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-management"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– Product managers need to adjust, adapt and go with the flow
– Little sense in beating against an immoveable obstacle
– Occasionally, the PM needs to be<\/strong> the rock<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.draggoo.com\/kevin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/06\/time-lapse-photography-of-waterfall-2108374.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n