Why don't you just ...
- 12 May, 2022
“Why don’t you just do …?”
“You should just …”
If you have worked in product management for more than a few months someone has said this to you. It’s deeply frustrating and can feel condescending.
I suspect that the product management team at Twitter is going to get a buttload of that if Elon Musk takes over.
Relax …
It’s not their fault if they don’t have all the context or if they are stating the obivous. They are just trying to help.
When I hear this, I’ll usually respond with some variation of “thanks for the feedback, we’ve tried that and it didn’t work because X.”
Resist the urge to lose your cool. I know this is hard but remember you don’t have all the answers. If we react poorly when someone provides us feedback we close down discussion and debate – the life blood of product management.