This is How You Get Out of a Rut and Get Things Done as a Product Manager

99% don't trust your brain when it throws excuses at your doorstep

Dear beautiful souls,

This post is written as a reflection of my recent experience of getting out of a rut as a product manager. Still, it’s also applicable to many walks of life, especially as a feminine leader.

So the story goes like this. In my job, I had to interview users for feedback on their experience on our platform. The objective for these interviews was to gauge their interest towards a certain feature that we’re going to develop. Since it’s a new one, and a bit pivotal as well, we arranged a couple of in-depth user interview sessions.

Without divulging much about the product or business line I’ve been working on, I needed to interview the users based on their investing behaviours. I made the survey questionnaire and consulted with the COO and my direct manager, and then the survey was ready. The online survey was then sent out for our users, but for the selected interviewees, I needed to ask extended questions, so it was a little less structured path. When something interesting cropped up in their answers, I could follow up on the questions or take a different route from the survey questionnaire.

I didn’t know exactly what the problem was, but I didn’t feel excited at all on the days I had to interview the users. I tried figuring it out and failed to pinpoint the exact reason. Since my transformation to become more extroverted, I saw there shouldn’t have been any reason that hindered my outgoing willingness to talk to people, alright?

Besides, it was just a maximum of 1 hour of interviews per user as we didn’t want to take up much of their time, and interviews longer than 1 hour for that set of problems indicated a lack of focus. I didn’t need to leave the comfort of my home or office desk, either, as the interviews could be conducted online. It was not the usability testing type where a PM or a researcher walked the users through our prototypes and people watched from a room with a one-way glass window.

So, why?

The possibility of imperfection paralysed me

I brushed the nagging feeling of discomfort off and proceeded with the interview, one way after another in the span of a week or over. Data collected, feedback unrelated to the questions but still regarding the overall user journey recorded, and notes taken. All seemed good. I analysed the survey findings in parallel with conducting more interviews so that by the end of the week I could share the business deck of the findings, containing the executive summary, with the COO and my manager, and the discussion rolled from there.

And then, I figured out why I was reluctant to start interviewing the users at first. The hint of the answer presented itself when I copied/pasted the charts that were automatically generated from the Google Form to the deck, to add to my analyses. The charts were as simple as it could be. If you have done this before with a Google Form you know what I mean. Each question has its own chart. At a glance, the charts serve as a quick summary of the responses. However, everyone who has been trained in business communication or worked in management consulting knows that this is not the proper way to convey the message to the board. You have to string sentences, storylines, headings and subheadings, that shape your key points to be delivered to the decision-makers: people influenced by the deck to make the changes happen. Normally, it’s your higher-ups in a company, or your clients if you work client-based. The flow would be they read or listen to your presentation and take informed actions. The charts alone are part of the whole analysis.

And that’s where my rut or procrastination tendency came from: the possibility of imperfection. Just like how the charts aren’t perfect and only parts of the whole story, I regressed to my old self who was way less capable of single-handedly tackling the end-to-end task of conducting user interviews.

My mind was my enemy in that process. I kept getting reminded:

Oh, you’ve never conducted this alone because you always had at least another researcher working with you.

Can you deliver this deck, though? Remember that time when your bosses criticised your business deck, saying it was subpar to the level of quality they had wanted?

And so on.

There was nothing wrong with my capability at the point when I made that newest deck. The output looked professional and the analyses were sound. The executive summary was actionable. The discussion and extra analysis needed to be done rolled from the deck, which marked a good starting point. 

The root of procrastination and self-accusation lies in your mind. In my case, it always accused me of not being enough. And when I recall many podcasts or Pinterest pins about procrastination, it’s always addressable. I analysed myself (yeah, that’s also a good trait to have as a product manager), and found out the thought process was like this.

See my point?

Our brains (or at least, mine, comment below if you can relate to this framework as well) don’t enjoy discomfort. Human beings pick the path of the least resistance. Any uncomfortable experience that hurts the ego (am going to talk about ego based on my reading of The Power of Now sometime) goes to be classified as “never again”.

My introversion tendency that dislike talking to people? Yeah, somehow the girl also tagged along during this unnecessary trip down memory lane! Who invited her?

In order not to make your brain your enemy, but rather, work with them, there are a few tips based on my experience, that I learned from different sources.

1. Just do. For fun, I copied the link of Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance at Letters Live, still my favourite, where he read the letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse, exactly at the point when he said Just Do! Trivial point though: I used to really want to watch him live either in theatre or letter reading like this. He and Tom Hiddleston are my British crushes. And my Marvel heroes as well when I still liked MCU until Endgame. But living in the UK for over a year and I haven’t watched any of his performances, LOL. Side note aside, why doing it is the ultimate action? Of course! Have you heard that overthinking is a poison and taking action kills it? Yes, that’s the essence of the story. By simply doing it, you’ll consume the brain power that is otherwise used for mulling over different scenarios. Your brain never lacks content (I wish I could be as productive when producing my blog posts) to terrify you of upcoming situations. Just do, and its power is reallocated to something greater and more beneficial for you.

2. When you’re stuck in a rut of doing, and feeling on autopilot, saying Yeah I must do this, I must conduct this interview and then call it a day, say things like: I deserve the [insert whatever rewards await you, something that serves you in the long run]. For example, in my case, I can’t deliver something subpar. It’s more than just a dopamine hit after completing this task but is about my integrity. However, even though your reason is purely a dopamine hit, I think it’s still much better than procrastinating or being on autopilot. You know you’ll feel better afterwards, so rather than take a seat back and observe the task being done on autopilot, actively engage in the task that makes you deserve that fulfilment.

Your brain never lacks content to terrify you of upcoming situations.

That’s all. Two steps. That aligns with the philosophical spirit of this topic, doesn’t it? I couldn’t possibly create a post about ten steps of getting out of a rut or killing your procrastination. The ten steps themselves are delaying your action, which is the key to ending all delays!

Share your thoughts and experience about a similar thing below.

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Until then,