16 days.
I had the details for today’s post for the last 16 days. Everything was planned out, what to say, how to say it. Everything.
In my head.
The step to publishing was not thinking all day about it but actually putting pen to paper (or in this case fingers to keyboard )
Action. The need to put thoughts to action.
Stay with me, we are going somewhere.
Every product that has ever been created began with the three phase process.
Thought —> Idea —> Imagination
Thought: occurs suddenly and crosses your mind casually. Most times dismissed.
Idea: the simple development or formulation of a thought. Putting more thought into thought.
Imagination: a series of planned ideas. The step by step of how an idea would work. A full-blown plan of how an idea would go without the use of any of the five senses.
The pitfall is that the greatest products that may ever be launched have failed to scale through this process.
This is the stage we mostly find the ‘to be’ founders, solution providers, value creators, best selling authors, award winning artistes, life changers.
Trapped, stuck, lost, misunderstood, unclear, blurred, shaky, inspired yet largely uninspired to leave the four corners of this room we call our minds.
“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”- Les Brown
Personally, I fail to agree completely with this quote. I believe the richest place on earth is really in the minds of men and women who are alive, who are rich in thoughts, ideas, imaginations and ultimately great products that would help mankind and who can achieve whatever they set their minds to.
Man is the only solution to man’s problems.
And what we need is to turn that thought, idea, imagination into a vision.
“Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.”- Habakkuk 2:2
Is your vision written down? Or do you just play around with your imagination?
In 2017, I got the idea to start a blog about people and life in general. I would think daily about what I was going to write, the examples I would use and how I’d put the words together. Yet I was stuck on the impression that there was a general ‘acceptable’ way of expressing myself, that I had to write only in a certain way in order to engage people. I never started.
December 2019, I wrote ‘start a blog unfailingly’ as one of my top goals for the year 2020 and wrote down the content I wanted to see on it. I did not care that I may be poor at writing or creating content or get little views. I just wanted to start! Every other thing would fall in place.
The only ‘acceptable’ way of expressing myself was being myself.
Idea was turned to vision real quick by just writing it down and visulaizing it everyday. What you are reading is the product.
Where do you have your vision written down? Can you read it daily and say “Yes! I am going to do that someday!” ?
Until you are able to do this, ‘someday’ would just always be ‘somewhere’ in your mind.
“Your idea written on paper is a vision. Your imagination written on paper is a roadmap.” — Ajoke 2020
Ah I’ve blown! Please feel free to quote me 😏
Product Roadmap: A document that outlines your vision and direction over time. Keyword being over a period of time. It is a plan for executing the product vision you have gotten. It highlights and aligns the short term and long-term goals of a product.
Let’s take Ade for example, a 13-year-old girl whose dad just got the latest 2020 Cadillac CT5. She loves it and wants to own and drive one just like him. Ade has quite a number of dreams (ideas and imagination)she would love to accomplish. Yet driving and owning a car at 13 was really quite absurd. It was more of a goal achieved over a period of time, say 5 years. All she needs to do is focus on the things that are important now (known as features in products) which would help her achieve the goal of owning and driving the latest cars too once older.
This is a simple explanation of how a roadmap is used and why it is created.
Your roadmap answers questions like:
· Where do you hope to be in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years?
· What features do you hope to be launching or upgrading to?
· What areas or markets do you wish to break into or transform?
Write it down. Draw it out. Tweet it. Post it forward.
Legibly. Visibly. Intentionally. Sensibly.
A product manager is hardly saddled with ‘the how’ of a product, which details how the product would be implemented (coding, manufacturing,production).
A product manager’s main focus is on ‘the what’ (details of the product, it’s users and stakeholders) and ‘the why’ (product vision, roadmap, purpose product serves to stakeholders and users).
The PM does not let ‘the how’ dissuade from writing the product goals or working towards achieving those goals or eventually launching the product.
You are the PM of your life. Do not let how you would become something ever stop you from starting.
Two weeks ago, I tweeted this.
It started off wanting better leadership for my country and led to several questions trooping in, largely based on ‘the how’.
Truth be told I sincerely did not know how to answer ‘the how’. I still don’t.
All I know is what began as an idea to make the country a better place and got written down would definitely come true. Now, I may not be President by 2035 but ‘the why’ behind becoming President would defintely be achieved or on its way to achievement in whatever capacity I find myself.
Making Nigeria a better place. For its people and by its people.
Crazy right?
“Never forget you’re allowed to chase all your dreams and never let anyone take your stories from you. You are allowed to be multifaceted. You’re allowed to have many dreams and you’re absolutely allowed to chase them all.” — Sofiyat, @the_odditty
Ajoke.
