Hey Product Managers, go wash some dishes!
Over the pandemic, my kitchen and its appliances, the dishes and the cabinets have been used many times more than what was their pre-pandemic normal. We are a house of five adults — my 2 adult-age kids came home during the pandemic, as well as my 80 year-old mom, my husband and myself, all together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has been an interesting and unique experience to say the least…. But back to the topic of my kitchen — over the past 12 months, we’ve found ourselves cooking over 90% of our daily meals at home, to the point where I’m starting to feel like the pandemic has been a stress test on my kitchen.
Which is how my kitchen faucet broke. It had been having some minor hiccups with dispensing hot water every once in a while but nothing too bad, until one day it started leaking and was just beyond repair. And so my husband ran over to the local hardware store and bought a new faucet, a plumber was called and the new faucet was installed.
This is where the story begins. You see my husband is very efficiency-minded. If A is broken, fix A (that is fix it yourself before calling a repair person), and replace A only when it has been proven (more than once) that it cannot be fixed. Being his wife I have learned to patiently wait for things to unfold as such (although I have also learned to refrain from saying “I told you so” for the general peace and happiness of all involved). So when the old faucet broke and a new one was promptly purchased I was pleased about the chain of events up to that point. Due to the pandemic, I didn’t accompany him to the hardware store to pick one up, and so the path to purchase for that faucet had been short and quick. He made a single trip, found something he considered functional, and bought it. It seemed like a fairly simple task. And aren’t most faucets made equal?
The new faucet was installed and put to use right away. And then I discovered that all faucets are not made equal.
This faucet was shaped like an upside-down short J, and its entire body was so short that it didn’t stand high enough above the sink for me to wash my dishes properly. The large dishes could barely fit underneath it and couldn’t get a proper rinse. Moreover, it didn’t have a pull-out spout, so my sleeves would get wet every time. After some strongly worded feedback to my husband and live demonstrations of the poor design, he concurred that we should buy a second new faucet.
This time I was the purchaser. I did a thorough internet search with my requirements — 1.The faucet needs to have a long neck that is far from the back wall of the sink, 2. It should have a pull out spout, and 3. It should look pretty.
As I did my research I found that there is actually a metric that measures the distance from the base of the faucet to the mouth! Look at that, the faucet people, well at least some of them, had thought of that. Not only that, there is a design feature in sink faucets wherein they can be slightly angled to point away from the back wall so the water points towards the center of the sink. Whoa! Kudos to the faucet designers. And so my research continued until I felt I had identified the perfect faucet. It was significantly higher in price than the first one but at that point, price was of little to no importance.
For this next part you have to envision a beautiful morning with the sun coming up with its golden rays and coffee brewing, and the world is, ok let’s not talk about the world, we’ll stay within the small geography of my home, which was as peaceful as it could be. The new faucet is a beautiful dark copper tone, it has a spout that can be pulled out and most importantly, a tall inverted U shaped design that gently angles away from the back of the sink. I knew I had succeeded in acquiring the perfect faucet when my young adult daughter complimented me on it the very next morning.
And my life at the sink changed. My sleeves were no longer getting wet. I was able to comfortably do my dishes with enough space to swish and swash the water around while rotating and flipping even the large cast iron pans and my massive Indian woks. Oh and did I mention how nice it looks in my kitchen?
This entire experience reminded me and brought to life so very vividly and personally, the single job that a product manager has — to improve the life of their consumers with their products. Any product, whether it is physical or digital, has the power to provide a life changing experience for its users. I am sure the designers of my faucet #2 have stood at many times at the kitchen sink and washed dishes, otherwise they wouldn’t have known the small design nuances that separate a less-than-functional faucet from a great one. Living a day or two or three in the life of the consumer is the single most important thing that a product manager can do. Notice how price was of very little consideration not because I am rich and I can buy any faucet on the planet, but because I was miserable with faucet #1 and I needed to stop my misery at almost any cost.
I hope this story, as small and inconsequential as it is, reminds us product managers that ultimately it is about the customer, their needs and pain points. As Product Managers we have an incredible opportunity to impact, for the better, the lives of our customers. And so my friends next time you are creating a product go stand at the sink with your customer and wash a few dishes!
