The best tips from legendary sport coaches applied to product
During this pandemic, I spent quite some time looking at TV series* and along with the ones that I watched just for fun, I found one that made me think about product development. It is The playbook: a coach’s rule for life an original series from Netflix that profiles legendary sports coaches who talk about their rules to achieve success with their teams.
Doc Rivers leading the Boston Celtics to success, Jill Ellis guiding the US women's football team to double world cup victory, José Mourinho from Porto to the top of the world, Patrick Mouratoglou coaching Serena Williams, and Dawn Stanley creating her space in a man dominated world as basketball.
They all have incredible stories and lessons on how they achieved extraordinary results with their teams. But above all, I think they give incredible reflection points for everyone working with product, especially product leaders. I think in fact that there is quite some similarity between the work of a sports coach and the one of a product leader:
Both have to lead with trust, not with power. Many product people do not have personal responsibility and the only leverage they have to spearhead the product development organization is building trust
Both need to see the potential in people and develop them, not only by teaching the individual their craft but making sure that the single person contributes at its best to the greater team good
Both need to see the overall picture and understand what needs to be done in order to create prerequisite fo success
Both need to orchestrate the team, making the whole greater than the sum of its part
After watching the five episodes, it was quite interesting to translate some of the rules that the coaches talk about in a product development context. These are the ones that I could relate to.
image courtesy of Netflix
Ubuntu: I get better if you become better
It is Doc Rivers who talk about the principle of Ubuntu and how in a team, there is no place for ego. The power of ubuntu is one of the principles I believe the most on for driving a product organization (I talked about it at the end of this article ) and it was quite interesting to think about it in the context of the highly competitive NBA championship.
Believing in the power of the group doesn’t mean that there is no space for superstars, it means that the coach should optimize for the group and have people in the team that want to be team players. There would have not been Chicago Bulls with only Michael Jordan. Dennis Rodman and Scotty Pippen were fundamental for the success of the team. No matter how great you are, if your sole interest is to be THE superstar of the team, you have no space in a successful team. And this applies to product teams as well.
Why? Because you will not be able to do it completely alone, not even MJ could do it. Your talent should be used to make the group better, to show the others the way, to bring up discussions, and to be invested in the team. Not as a way to always shine above the others.
Applied to product your job as a PM is to bring perspective around business feasibility and gain, to present the problem and explore different solutions with your team, not to be the gatekeeper of the backlog by prioritizing what you think is best. The same way your job as a team member is to always voice your expertise, might that be on usability, tech feasibility, or likability.
And last but not least, on an overarching level, the job of a product leader is to create a team of superstars who are willing to develop others, do not feel threatened by colleagues, and invest in the group, not only in themselves. And be aware, the only way of making it work is to behave as you preach: you should be the first one asking questions and not giving answers, explore different approaches, talking about failures, investing in developing the group, and most importantly seeing others success as a proxy of yours. The group above individuals, always.
This way of thinking is not alway applied in product, where the narrative of the sole-genius doing it its way and not caring about anyone else is still really strong (think Steve Jobbs and Bill Gates) but I believe that shifting the product mindset to one-genius show to a team-show is the only sustainable way.
Develop team players, not individual contributors
Many coaches went back to this concept: the whole is bigger than the sum of its individuals. This means that not only you need to have team players in your team, but you also have to teach them how to play together.
Paraphrasing José Mourinho: you do not teach Cristiano Ronaldo how to kick a penalty, but you should tell him how to best use his abilities in order to play at the best with his teammates.
This means that as a coach you should invest time in seeing the strengths of your players, develop them and also understand how you can best use their abilities to optimize the whole. Put an effort in recognizing strengths and improvement areas, talk explicitly about them, create a plan that works for the individual and for the team and go from there.
This approach resonates a lot with how I work with my PMs. I do not have tons of experience in developing product people, I have been working on this a little more than one year now, but what I try to do is to take the time to analyze them and define a clear focus area that aligns with what they want to improve upon and is important for the business in the short-mid term. We talk about it during our monthly feedback sessions and proceed from there. The approach is not always super structured, as I am learning by doing it, but I believe has gotten better during my time as a CPO.
If you are prepared for the worst, you are prepared
It is José Mourinho who talks about handling uncertain situations and prepare the team to be ready for whichever outcome when he talks about the champions league drawing in 2003. At that time he was coaching Porto and his team was almost paralyzed by the possibility of having to face Manchester United in the knockout round of the champions league. Manchester was the best team in the league and playing against them would most likely lead to a defeat for Porto.
Mourinho transformed this fear into an opportunity, he prepared the team to want to face Manchester United. He first worked psychologically with the players, making them want to play against Manchester. Then, when they actually had to face them, prepared different game plans on how to approach the situation. One might say that his approach was to prepare the team for the worst before the fact actually happened. That way they were ready for everything. All the rest was downhill.
(Side note: Porto faced Manchester that year, won against them, and won the entire champions league, kicking-off the special one career).
Be prepared to face the worst and be able to have a concrete way of handling uncertainty is a fundamental skill for product people, especially in 2020 when uncertainty got a whole new meaning.
I think that the lesson we can learn here is to not let any stone unturned: identify the riskiest assumption with your solution, sketch the worst scenario and draft a plan for it, in the case it MIGHT happen. Many times we worry and spend a lot of energy on possibilities that will never materialize, it is a psychological reaction that we can mitigate by having a plan. Knowing what to do in case the worst materializes will create enough psychological safety to dare to do move and decide. What if the worst happens? No problem, we know what to do.
We worked a lot with this concept at the beginning of the pandemic, when everything was uncertain. How will the government act? What will happen to the market? What will be the consequences to the business? Are we still focusing on the right things? We had more questions than we could answer. But we decided to try to take control of this uncertainty by planning.
We started from worst-case scenario assumptions and had an action plan signed off by stakeholders on what to do in case they would materialize. We did not use any of the scenarios (yet) but just knowing we had a plan, released a great deal of energy that we could focus on what we actually set-up to do.
The top of the mountain is small and the air is thin
It is Jill Ellis who talks about the special situation a best in class team finds itself in. She describes it as being on the top of a mountain: the top is narrow and the air is thin for a reason, you are not supposed to stay there, but to enjoy the view and then go back, before start climbing again.
Being the best in class is not an easy challenge, you always have a target on your back, others trying to win your spot, and really nobody to try to emulate. If you are the best what you have to do is have the perseverance of always moving forward and evolve by challenging and competing with yourself only.
It is a matter of setting goals, focusing to get there, and then re-center, re-focus, and find a new target to move towards.
I can really relate to this statement. Many times being an underdog is easier, it gives you someone to look at, weak spots to attack, motivation to get to the top. If you are already the best, is not easy to maintain that position and, in product development is that lack of motivation of disrupting yourself that could really hurt you.
I find myself leading a team of best in class, owning the market and I think that the biggest lesson I can learn from Jill is to think about what is the target for us. How can we move faster, better, and more focused than all the ones that are trying to get our position? How can we find our own voice, holding fast and staying true to it while always evolving to our best version? It is not an easy task, but we have to embrace the challenge, understand is hard, and then always keeping on moving forward. And when we get there, enjoy the view for a second, before starting to climb again.
* Bonus content: here are some tv-series tips of my favorite from the 2020 watchlist:
Dark, so amazingly cerebral, and well-crafted story
Normal people, I loved the book from Sally Rooney, the tv series did not disappoint
The crown, oldie but goodie. Last season painted the snobbiest and most cold-hearted version of the British royal family to date. Amazing actors and costume settings.
The queen’s gambit, probably the series with the most underwhelming title in the history of tv series, I honestly would have never started to watch it if I didn’t get a tip. Go beyond the title and you will find the story of a troubled soul playing chess.
The last dance, I am not a fan of basketball or Michael Jordan, but this documentary on Chicago Bull’s history during the 90s is gold.