I started working as a product manager a few years back. Someone said – “In the long run, the only thing that’s going to matter is your answer to the question – what have you shipped?
If you can point to a good set of products that have been loved by users and delivered on value to the business, you’ll have done well. And if you can’t, then you’ll have done poorly. It’s a simple as that.”
I think of that note from time to time. When you’re in the process of building the product, it becomes easy to get caught in the internal noise. Your doubts, the team’s feelings, internal momentum, stakeholder feedback, user research, and so on. Some of these may be predictive to the outcome. The key is to not be distracted by any of this and instead to focus on the product.
Ultimately, the product truth will emerge and shine through.. or not.
Everything else is gravy.
