Tell me about a time when you screwed up as a product manager, and what were the lessons you learned from it?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

One time I failed as a product manager was when I was unable to convince our
Portfolio Manager to choose an alternative tool over Pendo for user guidance and
tooltips. This experience taught me valuable lessons about influencing
stakeholders, aligning on goals, and proactively addressing user pain points.
The situation arose when: The Portfolio Manager proposed adopting Pendo, a tool
that provides in-app guidance and tooltips, as he had seen it successfully
implemented by peers in other industries. However, Pendo came with a hefty price
tag of $15,000 annually for just 2,200 users. I conducted thorough research and
identified several alternative tools that were equally robust, significantly
more cost-effective, and offered higher user counts. For example, one tool was
priced at $6,000 annually for 5,000 users and had strong endorsements from
well-known companies in our domain.
My thought process and actions:
 1. Problem Identification: I saw this as a critical decision that impacted both
    our budget and our ability to deliver user-centric solutions. I also
    recognized the potential risk of over-relying on a third-party tool for core
    user experience elements.
 2. Evaluation of Alternatives: I created a comparative analysis, outlining the
    features, pricing, and user capacity of Pendo and the alternatives. I also
    included testimonials and case studies to validate the credibility of these
    alternatives.
 3. Presentation to Stakeholders: I shared my findings with the Portfolio
    Manager, explaining how we could achieve the same outcomes at a lower cost,
    allocate savings to other product priorities, and maintain scalability.

Outcome: Despite my efforts, the Portfolio Manager remained firm in his
preference for Pendo, and we proceeded with his choice.
What I learned and how I adapted:
Though I failed to influence this decision, I used this experience to improve
our processes and reduce dependency on external tools for user experience.
 * I analyzed user feedback and workflow data to identify areas where users
   struggled.
 * I collaborated with the design team to incorporate tooltips and guidance
   directly into our product’s UI during feature development, ensuring seamless
   user assistance without relying on third-party tools.
 * I also refined my stakeholder management skills, learning to better
   understand and align with the underlying motivations behind their
   preferences. For instance, in this case, I could have emphasized how an
   alternative tool could still meet the desired outcomes while addressing
   budget concerns.

Result: The proactive changes we implemented led to an improved user experience,
as validated by a reduction in support tickets for complex workflows.
Additionally, incorporating in-house solutions positioned us to maintain greater
control over our product’s usability.
This experience taught me the importance of combining data-driven
decision-making with a deeper understanding of stakeholder perspectives,
ultimately shaping my ability to influence and align with diverse viewpoints in
future scenarios.

Anonymous · Answer

I was leading an online store platform for SMBS and noticed that the many of the
small sellers were struggling to complete all the steps required to get the
online store launched. This hurt the plan subscription and hence our SaaS
revenue.

So, I proposed to streamline the online store setup by incorporating the best
practices of eCommerce and default enabling certain features including 'Free
Shipping' rule on all orders. The shortned setup process would lead to more
stores launched quickly. We made this change and included a notification in the
onboarding step.  We assumed that sellers would turn off the Free Shipping'
option, if they were not planning to offer. 
After we launched the change, the online store setup rate indeed moved up and we
were happy about it.  But, we started to hear from few sellers that they were
surprised about "Free Shipping' being turned on and now they are loosing money
on orders.
I realized the mistake we made with our assumption. We were quickly turned off
default enablement of the 'Free Shipping' , but made it super easy for sellers
to discover this option during store setup process and turn it on with a single
click.
I learnt a lesson to do further user research or A/B testing to mitigate such
issues in the future.

Anonymous · Answer

I was leading an online store platform for SMBS and noticed that the many of the
small sellers were struggling to complete all the steps required to get the
online store launched. This hurt the plan subscription and hence our SaaS
revenue.

So, I proposed to streamline the online store setup by incorporating the best
practices of eCommerce and default enabling certain features including 'Free
Shipping' rule on all orders.   We made this change and included a notification
in the onboarding step.  We assumed that sellers would notice this and turn off
the feature, if they don't want to offer 'Free Shipping' on all orders. 
After we launched the change, the online store setup rate indeed moved up and we
were happy about it.  But, we started to hear from few sellers that they were
surprised about "Free Shipping' being turned on and now they are loosing money
on orders.
I realized the mistake we made with our assumption. We were quickly turned off
default enablement of the 'Free Shipping' , but made it super easy for sellers
to discover this option during store setup process and turn it on with a single
click.
I learnt a lesson to do further user research or A/B testing to mitigate such
issues in the future.

Anonymous · Answer

I was leading an online store platform for SMBS and noticed that the many of the
small sellers were struggling to complete all the steps required to get the
online store launched. This hurt the plan subscription and hence our SaaS
revenue.

So, I proposed to streamline the online store setup by incorporating the best
practices of eCommerce and default enabling certain features including 'Free
Shipping' rule on all orders.   We made this change and included a notification
in the onboarding step.  We assumed that sellers would notice this and turn off
the feature, if they don't want to offer 'Free Shipping' on all orders. 
After we launched the change, the online store setup rate indeed moved up and we
were happy about it.  But, we started to hear from few sellers that they were
surprised about "Free Shipping' being turned on and now they are loosing money
on orders.
I realized the mistake we made with our assumption. We were quickly turned off
default enablement of the 'Free Shipping' , but made it super easy for sellers
to discover this option during store setup process and turn it on with a single
click.
I learnt a lesson to do further user research or A/B testing to mitigate such
issues in the future.

Anonymous · Answer

I was leading an online store platform for SMBS and noticed that the many of the
small sellers were struggling to complete all the steps required to get the
online store launched. This hurt the plan subscription and hence our SaaS
revenue.

So, I proposed to streamline the online store setup by incorporating the best
practices of eCommerce and default enabling certain features including 'Free
Shipping' rule on all orders.   We made this change and included a notification
in the onboarding step.  We assumed that sellers would notice this and turn off
the feature, if they don't want to offer 'Free Shipping' on all orders. 
After we launched the change, the online store setup rate indeed moved up and we
were happy about it.  But, we started to hear from few sellers that they were
surprised about "Free Shipping' being turned on and now they are loosing money
on orders.
I realized the mistake we made with our assumption. We were quickly turned off
default enablement of the 'Free Shipping' , but made it super easy for sellers
to discover this option during store setup process and turn it on with a single
click.
I learnt a lesson to do further user research or A/B testing to mitigate such
issues in the future.

Anonymous · Answer

At the beginning of my career when I began as a Product Owner, I was asked to
make the case as to why we should/should not build a mobile banking watch app
(we were working on a full Front End redesign and a full BE restructuring, we
were keeping scope and timelines pretty tight). It was my first time presenting
to the leadership team, I  quickly prepared a spreadsheet looking at what would
have to be scoped out, specific feature list for the watch app, and sizing for
each feature. I had my math wrong in my excel sheet calc and leadership noticed.
I definitely learned to check my work, share it with 1 or 2 people who helped me
gather the data to double check my numbers. Now even when I pull my own data, I
like to discuss with either my manager or prefereably someone from the analytics
team.

Anonymous · Answer

Our Portfolio manager was convinced that we need to use a tool called Pendo as
some of his peers from other industries were using it. Pendo was providing ways
to add hints/tooltips that guide users through certain complex workflows. At
that time this tool was priced at $15000 for 2200 users per annum. When this was
brought up with me, I did my research and found many equally good tools but at a
much lower cost and higher user count. I presented my findings to the manager
with details of costing, number of users and reputed companies that use these
tools. But he was very convinced that Pendo was the way to go and I had failed
to convince him.
Though I was not able to convince him I wanted to make sure that in future we
should not depend on a 3rd party tool to make user experience easier for the
users. I used user feedback and user flow analytics to ensure that help was
available in workflows where I confirmed users were having trouble. I made sure
that while designing new features, we were designing with tooltips for complex
workflows.

Anonymous · Answer

At my previous job, the development process moving slower than expected at my
first project since I was not familiar with the development progress.
When I realize this situation, I tackle this problems with some actions: (I took
proper action afterwards:
1.First, I start by thorough understanding the development process and test
plan, which associate the function test case, requirement and criteria for each
phase. Those could let me planning the design schedule accurately, andarrange
the test resource more efficiency.
2.On the other hand, to set the check point for project review
3.For issue management, provide the issue summary which include isolation
result, impact and mitigation plan for risk assessment for further control. Take
partial review with team members in order to ensure could meet target
performance in tight schedule.
Both give me the precise control for development and test area, and could
identify potential risk in advance, be able to have recommendations for
improvements as well.
After that, I have in charge for more than 15 projects and achieve 94% timely
delivery of high-quality results.
Alsoability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Tell me about a time when you screwed up as a product manager, and what were the lessons you learned from it?

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