Preface

Unchecked, the journey of our lives is defined more by our weaknesses than our strengths. It is why partnerships, properly balanced, can produce extraordinary results. One person’s weaknesses are mitigated by the strengths of the other.

Many parts of our bodies come in pairs. Some pairs of organs contribute redundancy. One kidney is usually enough, but a second one is a good idea. Other organs provide teamwork; eyes, ears, brain hemispheres, and feet, to name a few. It is the second eye and the second ear that contribute a perspective than one eye or one ear alone cannot deliver. Your stereoscopic vision is an excellent example of partnership in action. Even the slightest difference in perspective between your two eyes could, in theory, save your life some day. Take those fine ears of yours. Your ancient ancestor’s ability to sense the direction of a predator, or prey for that matter, may be the reason you’re alive today.

Thus, it is the differences between, not the similarities of, the members of a partnership that make the partnership strong.

In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

- Carl Sagan

Not to be confused with the definitive meaning of the word, you could say we live in a binary world. Where there is an up, there is a down and where there is a left, there is a right. It takes both rain and sunshine to make things grow.

You can readily see two opposing forces keeping each other in check everywhere you look. When sunshine alone prevails, a desert ensues. Rain alone produces nice rivers and oceans of course, but without the sun, rain clouds would not exist in the first place.

Look closely at almost any aspect of your life and you will see these binary forces at work. They are at work in politics, religion, physics, weather, love and sports.

Over the two decades I have worked in product management of one type or another, I have tried many different ways to make products succeed. I have made many mistakes and I have made the occasional good decision. Thankfully, the good decisions outweighed the mistakes often enough to send a dozen products out the door and I was rewarded for doing it. However, I did learn many important lessons from the mistakes.

Early in my career, I thought I had all the answers. As the years progressed, I became unsure. Was I like the proverbial rooster who thought he made the sun rise with his crowing, or did I really drive the product to success by will and work? For years, I searched everywhere for the answer to the question of what the drivers of a successful product were; those which, when understood and tamed, would help me steer a product to success.

My quest settled on a driver: conflicting forces and how they work in opposition to decide the fate of a product. A product may still fail for reasons both inside and outside of your control—from earthquakes to conflicting interests, to plain old office politics—but understanding and managing these two forces, I believe, will greatly increase your chances of product success and profitability.

Throughout this book, I refer to a number of product categories in the motor industry. I chose this industry for a number of reasons: (1) many of the products therein are very familiar to most people; (2) statistics are readily available for readers to verify; and (3) it has been around for many decades.