Thinking Like a Chess Player to Make Product Decisions

If we ever get to spend any time together during a product meeting, whether it’s with engineers, designers or any other team in the organization — one thing that you will hear me saying a lot is — “thinking out loud…” and then proceed to verbally go through all the thoughts running through my head related to the problem at hand as we try to analyze and resolve it. One thing in particular that you may notice, as my mind becomes my outside voice, is that I quite often switch back and forth between “pro” and “against” thoughts as to why it is — and at the same time it is not — a good idea or plausible solution.

It’s a lot like analyzing a move during a game of chess.

Good chess players don’t just analyze one move ahead. They analyze 2–3 or more moves ahead.

Now, great chess players, however, not only have the ability to analyze multiple moves ahead and across a wide range of variations, but also take the various possible responses from their opponents into their analysis. They are not satisfied that they have found a good move until that move can withstand any possible response and still come up ahead.

In a way, playing chess and Product Management are very similar in that in both cases, you are presented with problems (i.e., moves and users’ problems) which can have an a number of possible solutions. Rather than starting and falling in love with a particular solution (i.e., the first move or feature that comes to mind) you scrutinize the problem and break it down into smaller pieces until you get a deeper understanding of its challenges. Only then, do you start to think about possible ways to approach it and solve it.

Finding a good move or a way to implement a new feature that will solve a customer’s problem is only the first step. Before you reach for a piece, draft some requirements or write the first line of code you want to stress test the solution by trying to poke holes in it. You’ll want to think about all the reasons why it may not be a good move or solution and all the ways in which it can go wrong.

A common tool used by Product Managers to gain a deeper understating of a problem is the five whys method. But, sometimes, just as important as asking “why?” it is asking “why not?”. Whether you do it by yourself or with your team, you are empowered to explore all the angles; the pros and cons, and form a more complete picture and understanding as to the possibilities and approaches available towards constructing a solid solution.

People should feel comfortable presenting ideas and/or criticizing them, knowing that the goal is not to have a contest of wits and personalities, rather to arrive at a workable solution that will deliver the expected value to the user and the business.