Aaah, optimistic suggestions. That heat, fuzzy blanket that founders and product managers like to wrap themselves in.
“Our customers love us,” you proclaim in crew conferences. “We’re heading in the right direction,” you inform stakeholders. “You probably did it,” you inform your self within the mirror. “PMF right here we come.”
However there’s an issue.
You may’t construct a product based mostly on optimistic suggestions.
When I speak to clients, I completely love negativity. I thrive on being advised that I obtained it unsuitable, that I made a poor product choice or assumption, that I missed the mark, that I may have and may have finished higher.
Name me a masochist, however the factor is that this: I do know that these lumps I obtain are going to assist me construct a greater product. Positivity, alternatively? That’s ineffective to me.
Enable me to elucidate.
The explanation that negativity is seen as being so dangerous is as a result of we’re all human (except you’re an AI, by which case… I, for one, welcome our new overlords). All of us expertise feelings, and all these comfortable, mushy emotions could be harm. And thus: