GE 13: Scrum down - what product managers can learn from rugby

As the Six Nations commences and following the success of the recent Netflix documentary Six Nations: Full Contact, this week we explore whether product managers can learn anything from the tough game of Rugby.

It’s All About the Team

Rugby is perhaps the greatest of team sports. For a team to dominate, every person in the team has to know what they are responsible for and needs to execute consistently during the match. Any weakness in any position will be exploited by good opposition. It is rare in rugby for a team that has a player sent off early in the game to recover and win the match.

Successful products also need the backing of a complete team of players including development, testing, sales, marketing, product management not to mention a myriad of back office roles that provide additional support. These different roles need to communicate, be co-ordinated and understand the product and what it aims to achieve. Every function needs to perform well to win — a killer product is nothing if it cannot be sold or if no-one even knows that it exists.

Forming a Game Plan

Before each game, the coaching and leadership team form a game plan. They study the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses and work out ways to mitigate them and exploit them respectively. The game plan encapsulates team selection, specialist training, designing set moves and considering responses to scenarios that are likely to occur during the match. Players are briefed and logistics are confirmed. For high-stakes games, no detail is left to chance — from the breakfast menu to the route the team coach takes to get to the ground.

Similarly, products must have a product strategy. The strategy defines who will use the product, what and how they will pay, how it will be built, sold and marketed. In the same way coaching teams study hours of previous game footage, product managers should research their market and target customers. Studying the opposition translates to exploring the alternatives that the target customer has and understanding why a customer would pick your product over any other solution.

“Eyes Up” — Playing What is Front of You

Even with the best game plan, conditions can change on the pitch. Players get red-carded, it starts to snow, the refereee decides today is the day to focus on an arcane law that hasn’t been enforced in the last 10 years. The best teams must adapt to the conditions in real-time, formulate a new plan and then most importantly communicate this across the team.

The same goes for managing a product. A new competitor may enter the fray disrupting the status quo, a technological breakthrough may provide incredible opportunities for your product or the underlying problem that the product is solving may shift suddenly. So many successful products are born out of a pivot due to a change in market conditions. As a product manager, it is your job to be monitoring these changes and then have the courage to speak up and take action.

Remember to communicate clearly as to what the opportunity is, why the plan is changing and what the revised expectations are. It is imperative that you keep the wider team on-side during the pivot.

A Game of Attrition

Games can include moments of genius, but more often than not, the game is won through a multitude of minor wins across the team and across the pitch. An extra half a yard gained in the tackle, a good shove in the scrum, an accurate line out throw and that glorious kick to touch that caresses the outside of the white paint in the opposition’s 22. Players get hit and then get up again. Some mistakes are bad, but the opposition are making more. The score board is ticking over and the pressure starts to build on the opposition. The longer the game goes on, the more the winning team can relax a little, which frees them up to play better and make even fewer mistakes.

And so it goes with product management, it is a long game of attrition. Fixing bugs, performing meticulous research, solving the next problem and spreading the vision to everyone and anyone who will listen. There are no overnight successes. The winner is often the company that just doesn’t give up before they get there.

The Playmaker

A good fly-half controls the match. They may not be the captain of the team or the manager or the coach, but they have a huge influence on the outcome. They often decide whether to kick or carry, they may call the plays and they have to be skilled in attack, defence and have the ability to execute every type of kick. If the fly-half doesn’t perform, the team won’t be given the chance to play well. It is a heavy burden to carry, but there is no other position that is more involved in the play. The fly-half needs to follow the game plan, but there is still so much creativity and decision-making involved.

I’ll let you draw your own comparisons between the fly-half and the product management role. But next time, you watch a game of rugby keep an eye on the fly-half and ask yourself what would I have done differently.