A Product Designer/Manager has one of the hardest and most delicate jobs ever. One of which is telling the Product Owner to "go to hell". Well, definitely not in those words. But in a subtle and professional way.
How ever way you have to say it, it's never an easy task. Hence, the need for caution.
Do Not Smash the Plate
Product Designers are like a bridge between the owners and the users. Like a man running a polygamy, they must find a way to appeal to and satisfy both parties. And if you ask me as a lady who knows and wants exactly what she wants, I'll tell you to run! That's a tough one.
You don't want to be Moses. Moses was taking sharp instructions from God while having to deal with the complaints, murmurings and blatant disobedience of the children of Israel. If you're not careful in handling your clients, like Moses, you might angrily smash the plate. Into pieces. Pieces of project rejections, project abandonments or projects not well-done. Should this become your norm, just like Pa Moses, you might never get to the Promised Land. The Promised Land of a proud--robust portfolio, rich experiences, career and financial successes.
How then do you cross this dilemma and swim your way smoothly to the Promised Land?
Learn To Soften Your Skills
As techies, our primary job is to program and design. Most of our conversations are amongst ourselves, with our computers and to our tools. Most of us, I believe, would so love to keep it that way -- shutting out the world and unnecessary interactions and negotiations.
Alas! That's not to be. Because tech is not all techie, there are so many soft spots in between....
Tech is Functionality. Tech is Usage. Tech is Acceptance. Tech is a Sweet-relief. Tech is a Smile. Tech is a Solution. Tech is for People. Tech is for Humans. Tech is Business. Hence, the NEED for tech to be soft.
Product owners are people, business people who are dreamers and understandably, profit-oriented. And usually, they dream BIG. They want you as a Product Designer, to understand perfectly and inarguably capture every part of their dreams and inexcusably bring to life their billion dollar idea. Exactly as imagined. This is because they are also believers. They believe in the magic and endless possibilities of technology. Therefore, you will look funny, unprofessional, incompetent, difficult, worst still; like a dream-killer and a money-sucker if you're telling the Product Owner to cut down on his expectations and take it one useful bit at a time. But most times, there's need to tell them. This is why learning to communicate in the most appropriate and efficient way is key.
How about we use the baby analogy?
Products as Babies
To win them. You need to make clients understand the Users' Psychology in reference to past User Experience researches. They need to be educated on the Minimum Viable Product concept in references to popular products and their growth journey. They need to be made to see their product as a frail new-born baby and treat it as such.
A Product, like a new-born is not expected to crawl, talk, walk, jump and do everything an adult can do immediately after birth. It is first fragile, especially in its formative years. Hence, it needs to be groomed, nurtured, protected, well-fed, well-clothed, properly cared for, medically checked from time to time and observed closely. Even after growth, development never stops. A product, like a child, is a continual journey of nurturing, growth, development, improvement and intentional betterment. Sometimes by adding. And other times, by removing. It never stops, as long as it is alive (that is, functional).
Make them see the harm in expecting a product to be able to do everything imagined at its first breath; it might suffocate itself (at the design stage) and/or the users (with its overwhelming features). Make them understand why the Users are the most important and why they (Users) need to be fed bit by bit.
Users feel more comfortable with a Product they grow with and contribute to. It gives them a comfortable feeling of familiarity and a healthy sense of control over the product. This is better than thrusting it all on them.
This is just one way to tell a Product Owner to "go to hell". And to be honest, it is not as easy as written. It takes good verbal communication and human relation skill to actually kill it. And you and I know how unnatural that can be, especially for techies.
Reason why, we must learn.
Temz.🌹