What Product Managers can learn from the Movie "Inception"
All through my MBA, I had a dream. I will one day walk into a room full of people and present my "new idea". I will present the idea with a lot passion and vigor and at the end ... at the end everyone will rise from their chairs and give a standing ovation.
But, I soon realized, within a few months into my own startup. Only results mattered, not the idea. You can share your idea in a presentation with everyone else, but if your idea doesn't match to their own idea for the product, you are not going to impress them. So how do you get every one to love your idea?
Inception - You have to take your idea, and make it their idea. You need to make them believe it was what they always wanted to do. An idea that they came up with. Presentation plays an important role.
Identify the problems - Make sure everyone is aware and accepts the problems your startup is facing. If everyone is not solving the same problem, there is little chance you will have the same/similar plan of action to solve it.
Identify the Goal - You have identified 10 problems. But, your goal is to decide the biggest problem you want to fix, not everything. Agree on what problems you want to fix. This will increase your chances of agreeing on a solution.
Discuss - Here is when, your skills come into play. You have to ensure people have their voices heard (it will help you take a better decision too). And you should be able to integrate(reject if necessary) their suggestions into your plan. Only if you have their thoughts and ideas integrated can you have their buy-in, else you will have disgruntled people working on something that is forced on them.