EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 15Thinking

So far in this series of chapters on coaching, I've described a tool for assessing a current or prospective product person, and then provided detailed examples of how to craft a coaching plan to help the product person first reach competence, and then to reach her full potential.

We've discussed the importance of the 1:1, and we've discussed the written narrative technique.

We've also looked at coaching not just her skills and techniques, but also her mindset, including thinking like an owner rather than an employee.

In this chapter, I'd like to tackle another aspect of mindset, which admittedly can be a little awkward to discuss, but is perhaps the single most important behavior of a capable product person—the ability to think.

Often people refer to this with the shorthand phrase of looking for people that are “smart.” I'm guilty of this too. But the term “smart” is ambiguous and can obscure the real issue.

When people say “smart,” they are mostly referring to intelligence.

First, we need to acknowledge that intelligence and thinking are not at all the same thing.

I do believe that in order to think effectively (and more generally, to succeed in a career in product), you do need to have a certain level of intelligence.

However, I meet countless people who are clearly intelligent, yet waste their minds because they don't know how to (or are unwilling to) actually solve hard problems by thinking.

Second, we also need to recognize that acquiring knowledge and ...