I am just finishing up Malcolm’s Blink, a book about how we humans often “think without thinking”. This is hardly surprising to me, being many of my hobbies require reaction on a millisecond basis to the environment around me. Things happen without me fully realizing or controlling the “happening”. Without digressing into a Sam Harris style “where is the free will in fast paced sport” type post, I found Gladwell’s book to be especially illuminating to those of us in product management. Namely, in the way we can steer ourselves toward good and bad outcomes based on intuition, knee jerk reactions, thin slicing, limited market research and gut feel.
The TL;DR to this post is as follows: There is no way to reliably ensure your product will meet market need based on data gathering (see also: Coke vs Pepsi Challenge from the 80s), though this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t gather data before you make a decision, just that it should be taken with a grain of salt. Conversely, your ability to quickly make judgements around a product or idea may also lead you astray (or not) depending on your underlying expertise in the field and what your attention mechanism is trained to see signal in. This, I’d argue, is one reason I feel strongly any good PM must be a guru in the field they are PMing. I’ve seen far too many product people jump into a space they know nothing about and land somewhere between a glorified executive assistant and/or the bane of my existence. The flipside to this type of product manager would be someone like Steve Jobs, a person who is able to leverage market insights and data against vision, psychology and a deep understanding of the space as a whole.
Without further digression – here are a handful of takeaways from the book.
- Understanding the Power of First Impressions
Gladwell explains that our first two seconds of observing a person or situation can reveal incredibly rich and surprisingly accurate insights. Product managers constantly face new features, market changes, and user feedback. Understanding how to gauge first impressions—both your own and your users’—can be pivotal in deciding which features to prioritize or what tweaks to make to enhance user experience. - Refining Intuition
Blink dives deep into the concept of thin-slicing: the ability to find patterns in events based only on “thin slices” of experience. For a product manager, honing this skill can mean better anticipation of market trends and consumer needs without needing extensive data. Gladwell’s exploration of the adaptive unconscious shows us that intuition isn’t just a mystical force but a developed skill that can be refined and relied upon in making crucial product decisions. - Mitigating the Risk of Overthinking
One of the key messages from Blink is the potential downside of overanalyzing or drowning in too much information. This is particularly relevant in today’s data-driven environments where product managers can feel pressured to base every decision on hard data. Gladwell argues that this can sometimes obscure clear decision-making. Learning when to step back and trust your gut can prevent paralysis by analysis and keep your project moving forward.
In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell doesn’t just champion rapid cognition; he also provides a blueprint for navigating the complexities and pitfalls that come with it. For product managers looking to stay agile and effective in a dynamic industry, Blink offers not just strategies but also a compelling argument for trusting one’s own rapid judgments. It’s a must-read for anyone involved in making decisions that shape user experiences and influence market success.