Revisiting: "What you build will own you"—and why that matters
I published this originally on 27 October 2023. But I thought of today revisiting it with some new perspective as well. Meaning that this post is a revisited version, not just a repost.
I came across this maxim (and I have used in earlier post on creating focus), "what you build will own you", quite some time back in this Mind The Product article. Unfortunately, there is no mention of who coined it, but I do find it quite accurate and, in fact, a kind of enabling rule or principle for product development. Once we grasp that, it gives you good insight on the underlying key questions you can ask to guide your decision process, so that you aim at:
Minimize Time to Value: Is this the smallest thing that we can deliver?
Solve for Need: Will this help solve the customer’s problem?
Excel at Change: Can we keep the cost of change low?
I also find it interesting that those can be framed as somewhat reflecting the 3 disciplines of a product trio, at least in terms of predominance:
Minimize Time to Value → very linked to Design choices
Solve for Need → pretty much the job of a Product Manager
Excel at Change → a clear contribution of Engineering
Paraphrasing Jeff Patton's definition of product as being about the change in the world we want to bring now, I think any team that sufficiently reflects and enacts that principle, or enabling rule if you like, will tend to be more easily set for success. The only thing I feel is not sufficiently explicit there, although I guess one could argue that it is somehow implied and permeates the whole thing, is why that matters.
It essentially matters because it captures the fundamental tenet that is both the main challenge but also the opportunity of product development in a digital world—that we often have to learn our way through. And in fact, that is likely the best course of action, allowing fast experimentation that cuts time between figuring out what to build and maximizing both the chance of success and the impact.
In other words, and as I explored better in another post, product in a digital world is the realm of nearly infinite possibilities. So we can easily get distracted with "nice to haves", with things that could be cool to do, but as Peter Drucker famously said:
While these are all fairly commonsensical and obvious things, I have lived long enough to understand that they are still worth reminding. Some would even say that common sense is less common than you think, but I will leave that up to you to judge (I personally think that there is at least something to it).
That is then..."What you build will own you" is a good principle that can act as an enabling rule by giving insight that product development should often be approached as a learning, experimental journey (something I've explored more comprehensively in the two part series of flow enabling product development, here and here). Where "less is more", so that we can minimize time to market, so that we can focus on needs (as opposed to wants), and are technically enabled by the capacity to change fast (while keeping quality at bay, which would turn into slowing change in the long term anyway if not properly considered).
By the way, this maxim that can act as an enabling rule goes very well with the notion of Product Management being like gardening. As any gardener could tell you: taking care of a garden requires such a degree of commitment so to consistently and deliberately not let it take over too much of your time eventually, for letting things just go in the wrong direction for too long.
By Rodrigo Sperb, feel free to connect, I'm happy to engage and interact. If I can be of further utility to you or your organization in getting better at working with product development, I am available for part-time advisory, consulting or contract-based engagements.