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The Double Jab
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The Double Jab

Or how to guarantee your stakeholders really understand what they're asking you

Andre Albuquerque
Apr 19, 2022
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The Double Jab
www.andrealbuquerque.com

Everyone looks for simple tricks in product management. I usually say Good PMng is not about tricks, but frameworks and mental models. But today I am sharing a trick.

I call it the โ€œDouble Jabโ€. ๐Ÿ‘Š ๐Ÿ‘Š

Most stakeholders live in the solution-space: โ€œ๐˜ ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜Ÿโ€. โ€œ๐˜”๐˜บ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ โ€. โ€œ๐˜๐˜ตโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฃ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ด ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜กโ€. Even though every PM would love their stakeholders to live in the problem-space, generally you donโ€™t have time to educate, you just need to be effective, cut through the solution cloud and prioritize correctly.

To do this, you ask the typical โ€œWhy?โ€. Now your stakeholder will have the answer ready and prepared.ย 

๐ˆ๐ง๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ ๐๐Œ๐ฌ will take it and carry on, building whatever they are asked.ย 
๐„๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ ๐๐Œ๐ฌ double jab, punching a second โ€œBut why?โ€.ย 

Stakeholders are usually not ready for the second โ€œWhy?โ€. They never thought about diving deep into the rationale of the first answer. They are caught off guard. It often leads them to retreating, and say โ€œlet me get back to youโ€. More times than not, they donโ€™t come back. This means there was a lack of critical thinking, and maybe that need wasnโ€™t as important. ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐š๐ฏ๐ž๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐œ๐ž๐ฌ.

If they do answer the second Why, then you might have a winning argument. There was a thought process that overcomes an easy layer of reasoning, and it might deserve prioritisation discussion.

Bad ideas, unprepared requests, and proxy requirements rarely survive the double jab.

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