Success at scale: Product management as weight loss ⚖️

Published in

Nothing Ventured

5 min readAug 25, 2023

A couple of months ago I set myself a specific weight loss goal, which I am frustratingly close to achieving. “But Brian”, I hear you ask, “you are clearly a physical specimen chiselled from the finest granite, how can this be possible?” Well despite what you might think, I — like a lot of people — am guilty of putting on the “COVID-15” (and the rest) over the last few years.

During my journey, I noticed some similarities between my career (product management) and weight loss that I found interesting. The purpose of this post is to advise or give comfort to product managers — or perhaps people in other roles — who might feel as though they are not reaching their potential for one reason or another. Managing weight is something that most people can relate to from some point in their life and I intend to squeeze every last drop out of this tortured metaphor.

— — — — -

Be wary of people selling you something

Firstly I acknowledge that there is clearly a huge difference in the perceived trustworthiness of the average influencer/thought leader in product management versus those in weight loss. Weight loss has historically been an industry with a relatively high percentage of “snake oil salesmen” who are peddling something unreliable for a quick buck. If you are on social media for any length of time you will most likely be served up someone promising you the perfect body in minutes.

However it is also important to ask yourself questions when you are reading about the next big thing in product management. Who is the person who is telling me this? Are they selling something? Do they have a vested interest in me listening what they have to say?

This is not to say that if someone is selling something then everything they say is inherently dishonest. But clearly if someone stands to profit financially from you buying their product, then they may be a little over-exuberant about the benefits or probability of success while minimising the downside. It’s good to have a healthy level of scepticism before jumping head-first into any new product management frameworks or practices to avoid being taken in by false promises.

There is no “one size fits all” solution

Every single person reading this (all five of you) has a different body type. When it comes to losing weight, what works for one person may not — or more likely will not — work for another. There are no silver bullet solutions and anyone who tells you this is lying.

The same logic can be applied to the company you work for. Each business is its own organism comprised of the people who work in it and the legacy of those who used to. What worked once for a specific company at a specific time will not necessarily be repeatable for where you are today. You need to choose or adapt your principles based on what your company needs rather than trying to impose something you just read or that worked before but your current company doesn’t need right now, or ever. You must tailor your methods based on your company’s situation: its size, its finances, its priorities, its stage in its lifecycle and others.

Find what motivates you

The way that I succeeded in losing weight is the polar opposite of what any right-minded person would tell you. I went cold turkey and immediately deprived myself of anything remotely indulgent. I turned my diet upside-down overnight. I treated the app I used to track my weight as my own personal enemy that I needed to defeat. Clearly not the most healthy attitude, but it worked for me to get towards my desired outcome. Having also given up smoking a couple of years prior using the same method, I understood that this is just how my brain works. And I’m self-aware enough to know that this is different to most people.

The reason I’m saying all of this is because motivation can come from many and unlikely sources. Maybe it’s the fear of appearing foolish. Maybe it’s recognition. Maybe it’s a new role or promotion. Find what motivates you — even if it goes against conventional wisdom — and use that to help achieve your goals.

Success lies in the mundane

In my “throw enough shit against the wall” approach to weight loss, I also decided to take up running again. Little did I know that it was always destined to have zero impact on lowering the number that appeared when I stood on the scales every morning. In fact it may have even harmed my cause, as it contributed to me getting injured. The boring truth is that to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit and you burn the vast majority of calories by simply existing. Therefore the key is cutting down the calories you take in, which means making small changes to the things you eat every day. i.e. boring stuff.

The same applies to product management — every product manager lives or dies by doing the basics right. There is no point introducing a shiny new framework if your team is lost at sea or your stakeholders don’t know what you’re doing, in fact it may make things worse. Having the discipline to do the unsexy day-to-day tasks that you don’t enjoy will buy you the freedom to explore more exciting and innovative opportunities elsewhere. Keep your to-do list fresh, have your project plan up to date, make sure your business cases for the next 3–6 months are signed-off and the team know what they will be working on next, nip questions in the bud rather than letting them fester, have those difficult conversations that you’re putting off, post your daily updates to stakeholders. Doing all of these unloved micro-tasks on time buys you the breathing room to do other more exciting things.

Progress is not linear

There were — and continue to be — many mornings where I weighed the same (or more) than the previous morning despite living like a monk for what felt like an eternity. This can be disheartening but as anyone who has a passing interest in sport will have heard many many times, you need to “trust the process”. If you continue to do the right things day after day the results will come.

It can be the same in work, often you simply have bad days even if you feel as though you did everything right along the way. Similarly if you have tried a new approach recently, don’t expect results overnight. If you believe that your approach is correct then have faith in it, if you are right then it will pay off sooner or later.