Dealing with Product Failure: Emotional Resilience

09/28/22 • 28 min

We "fail" a lot in product management... a feature doesn’t resonate. A project goes off the rails. Our revenue or usage or retention numbers aren’t what we forecasted.

But we need to redefine failure. We need to realize that through this "failure", we learn. We grow. We become better. Emotional resilience is paramount for us in product management.

Susana Lopes, Director of Product at Onfido, shares her story on how she became resilient - through some really hard times.
We talk about:

Susana's experience with product "failure" and how she learned to turn a negative into a positive
How we can look at missteps as learning experiences
Tips on being resilient in product management

We "fail" a lot in product management... a feature doesn’t resonate. A project goes off the rails. Our revenue or usage or retention numbers aren’t what we forecasted.

But we need to redefine failure. We need to realize that through this "failure", we learn. We grow. We become better. Emotional resilience is paramount for us in product management.

Susana Lopes, Director of Product at Onfido, shares her story on how she became resilient - through some really hard times.
We talk about:

Susana's experience with product "failure" and how she learned to turn a negative into a positive
How we can look at missteps as learning experiences
Tips on being resilient in product management

Previous Episode

How Product Managers Can Spend More Time on Things That Matter

Product managers often spend time on things that don't add the most value to their products. They're pulled in to put out fires or do other things that, while important at the time, may not necessarily be the things that will "move the needle" for their products.
This episode features guest David Pereira, Head of Product at Virtual Identity. David shares insights on:

Reasons PMs sometimes don't prioritize time spent on the most important things
What are the right things to prioritize and what should be deprioritized
How orgs can set up an environment to foster prioritizing the right things
What PMs can do even if their environment isn't too conducive for this

Learn more from David on his website and his Medium page.
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Next Episode

What Level of Tech Skills Does a Product Manager Need?

While product managers should first and foremost be experts on the market and the customer problem, it’s no secret that some level of understanding of the solution is important.

But what is that level? On this episode, we explore that question.
Jan Lukas Haslbeck, founder of NATE, joins to discuss: