As product managers, we make high-stakes decisions every day that impact the success of our products and the experiences of our users. The problem is, we don’t always make those decisions objectively. Like all people, product managers have inherent biases and blindspots that influence our judgment – often without us realizing it. These biases can heavily shape the products we build, leading us to miss key insights and build products that don’t fully address user needs.
That’s why product managers must make a conscious effort to confront assumptions, identify biases, and understand blindspots. Only by becoming aware of the filters through which we view the world can we truly build user-centric products that meet diverse needs. With more self-awareness, we can catch ourselves before jumping to conclusions, question our gut reactions, and make decisions backed by evidence not tainted by bias.
Why Understanding Biases/Blindspots is Crucial for Product Managers
Product managers hold an immense responsibility – we make decisions that can make or break business success and greatly impact user experiences. That’s why understanding our own biases and blindspots is mission-critical. Left unchecked, biases lead product managers to draw misleading conclusions, focus on the wrong problems, and build products that don’t fully address user needs.
For example, a Product Manager with an availability bias might rely too heavily on feedback from power users who engage frequently, while ignoring inputs from less vocal but crucial user segments. Or a Product Manager might forge ahead confidently with their vision for a product direction, falling prey to overconfidence bias rather than truly evaluating market needs.
Biases can doom products:
- A music streaming app Product Manager built features based on their preferences for niche artists, not realizing most users listen to popular songs.
- A fintech app Product Manager designed investing tools for experienced traders, ignoring the needs of novice users who then churned quickly.
- A travel app Product Manager focused on complex itinerary planning features that existing power users asked for, failing to understand most new users just wanted simplicity.
These examples show how unchecked biases lead smart Product Managers astray, resulting in products that fail to achieve business goals and deliver great user experiences. By understanding how biases operate, product managers can catch themselves making assumptions before those assumptions undermine objectives. We can question our gut reactions, seek information that challenges pre-existing beliefs, and make decisions with an open mind. Then we can build products that truly serve our diverse customer bases.
Common Biases/Blindspots for Product Managers
Product managers should be aware of these common biases that can unconsciously influence decisions:
Availability bias: Relying too much on readily available data or personal experiences, while ignoring less visible data points. PMs should dig deeper for research.
Confirmation bias: Seeking out data that confirms pre-existing beliefs, and discounting information that contradicts those beliefs. PMs should question assumptions.
Ingroup bias: Making decisions tailored to people similar to yourself, failing to account for diverse users with different needs. PMs should gather wide perspectives.
Overconfidence: Overestimating product knowledge or abilities when making decisions. PMs should consider what they don’t know.
Sunk cost fallacy: Continuing with a product or feature based on resources already invested, ignoring signs of low value. PMs should focus on potential value.
Recency bias: Focusing on only the most recent events and feedback, with less regard for past learnings. PMs should take a long view.
Strategies to Uncover Your Own Biases as a Product Manager
Here are effective strategies product managers can use to uncover potential biases:
- Reflect carefully on your background and identity and how it shapes your assumptions. Actively seek out a wide range of user perspectives beyond your own.
- Thoroughly question any gut feelings you have about product directions. Look for information that contradicts your instincts, and play devil’s advocate.
- When conducting user research, listen extremely carefully for any contradictions with your beliefs. Be ready to discard assumptions if user feedback contradicts them.
- Solicit input from a diverse group within your team to surface blind spots you may have. Listen with an open mind.
- Keep a product decision journal and revisit past product decisions to identify bias trends over time. Spot patterns in your reasoning.
- Foster psychological safety on your team so members feel comfortable calling out potential biases or blind spots. Take these as opportunities to improve.
- Adopt a beginner’s mindset. Approach each product decision carefully and deliberately, as if you have no prior experience.
- Watch for HIPPO syndrome. Don’t let the highest-paid or most influential stakeholder’s opinions override user data.
- Stay constantly curious. Biases develop over time as we gain experience. Continuously question and challenge what you think you know.
Building More Inclusive and User-Focused Products
Here are some best practices product managers can follow to build more inclusive products that meet diverse user needs:
- Keep target users and personas for features very clearly defined during ideation, based on research. Gather continuous direct feedback from those user groups.
- Include a diverse set of users early and often in research and testing. Actively look for blindspots and unintended consequences your product could have on underserved groups.
- Weigh product decisions based on user value and business impact, not personal preferences.
- Institute processes to regularly re-evaluate past product decisions for biases. Be willing to sunset features that proved misguided.
- Promote diversity and psychological safety within your team to bring in a wide range of perspectives and avoid groupthink.
- Commit to understanding and serving the full spectrum of your users. Make reducing biases an ongoing priority, not just a one-off exercise.
- Structure your team with complementary skill sets including both analytical left-brain and empathetic right-brain thinkers.
- Seek mentoring from experienced Product Managers who have learned to address biases. Stay open to feedback.
- Hire user researchers from different backgrounds who can uncover blind spots. Listen carefully to their insights.
- Foster a culture focused on user evidence over opinions. Require data to back up claims.
Biases and Blindspots: Conclusion
In summary, identifying and minimizing biases and blindspots should be a priority for every product manager. Biases negatively impact our ability to build products that best serve our business goals and users’ needs. By becoming aware of the filters through which we view the world, we can catch ourselves before jumping to conclusions based on limited perspectives. Confronting our own assumptions is difficult but necessary work.
While biases are simply part of human nature, great product managers seek to recognize their own shortcomings and mitigate them. Prioritizing inclusive user research, constant information gathering from diverse sources, promoting team diversity and psychological safety, and continuous self-reflection will lead to better product decisions. Product managers should stay relentlessly user-focused, flexibly challenge their mindsets, and never stop learning. Making the effort to be more self-aware, question our instincts, and uncover blindspots will enable us to build products that serve everyone.