Make your next move “the RIGHT, NEXT, BEST… THING.”
If you’ve worked with me before, you’ve probably been in some kind of group discussion on the next steps for whatever challenge or moment we’re facing.
Out of curiosity, this morning I googled the phrase “the right next best thing.”
And here’s what I got back as the top result:
SOURCE: Google Search Results from “the right next best thing” - Erin B. April 17, 2023
It seems to be a popular famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt stating:
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
First, I’ll be honest… I’m excited it seems I might be the first to coin a phrase I say pretty often (note to self: reserve domain for my future book and podcast series asap). Second, I’m loving the quote’s in a category related to overcoming adversity. Because as a leader in building digital products… whether PM is for product manager or PM is for project/delivery manager… Adversity is something we all face everyday in this business.
The quote has a key difference than mine particularly in the middle of it: “the next best thing is the wrong thing.” This doesn’t sit well with me. Especially, when your product team’s working on a tight budget and timeline, and stretching those investor dollars to accomplish something great with measurable ROI.
I had a c-suite executive once feel the need to jump into the ring on a product my team was developing for their business, asking fair questions on go-to-market timing. There were some changes in direction, and we relied heavily on some other technologies from third parties to be available to us to get our part ready for launch. It was pretty clear where we stood for folks like me who had a good view of all the work in progress, but understandably difficult for others to fully appreciate all the moving parts.
I could not give a fixed date of delivery since we didn’t have a fixed scope or guarantees from the other players, nor could we commit to a fixed cost of remaining work that was a moving target. It was an uncomfortable position to be in to not have definitive answers, and I understand why some people just break down and make commitments they cannot keep to pacify senior executives in these moments.
But what I could commit to, no matter where we were today, tomorrow, next week or next sprint, is that we could commit to doing everything we could with the information available to our team today to be working on the-right-next-best thing. And that we’d look at each decision point with fresh eyes and make the most of our runway ahead to deliver the most value.
Funny, that was pretty much all the assurance they needed. There wasn’t interest in the data I had to back it up (which I usually have plenty of). Just that we truly had their best interests in mind each and every day.
So, all that said… how do we even know what the-right-next-best thing to do even is?
The most feel-good answer that comes to mind is to just pull from the top of the backlog. I’ve heard many times from product and engineering friends in Agile scrum teams that there is a lot of satisfaction seeing those must-have boxes checked and done.
But I find this to be short sighted. A lot can change within a sprint or two. As much as it stirs the dust into the air, and no one likes to feel a change in direction, I like to step back and look at more sides and angles:
Are we getting positive feedback from capabilities recently delivered… is the UX where it needs to be so we’re pretty confident it will land positive with customers? Maybe it's worth a little more investment while it’s fresh and we can iterate efficiently.
Are there any dependencies we’ve either created for others or that are surfacing that are going to create a roadblock for us in the coming weeks? I’ve seen times where we think we’re ready, and then have to stop and pivot without notice or work our way out of a heck of a traffic jam.
Are there any changes in flight from the business that we need to know about from stakeholders that might influence what we work on now or next? Businesses are changing and adapting too!
What risks are in front of us that we need to give attention to, so we’re not waiting until the last moment to address them? Consider a team brainstorm exercise of everything that could go wrong or that is feeling uncomfortable or uncertain to get the risks on the table and prioritized. And don’t forget to include the software engineers who are independently navigating the pressures of their time, energy and code quality.
Have we been paying enough attention to all the tech debt and working on the things under the hood that are critical to our success and growth? Delayed security patches, system and app upgrades, reliance on individual contributors, and lack of automation can be showstoppers.
After answering these questions, we may still land in the same place and just pull from the top of the current backlog, but having these conversations openly ensures we’re aligned on what’s next and why.
Other times, we learn something we wouldn’t have known that allows us to make adjustments while we’re not feeling in a crunch and we can be proactive about it. Definitely makes for less stress, supports collaboration and boosts confidence we’re on the best track based on what we know.
On to the last phrase of the president’s quote… “the worst thing is to do nothing.” Well, sounds like it’s time for some continuous discovery and squashing some noisy bugs!
