Stop Trying to Sound Smart

How trying to sound sophisticated almost killed a product vision

I’ve spent hours staring at my product vision draft. It has been tempting to weave in language like “paradigm-shifting innovation” and “cross-functional synergy optimization.” For some reason, I felt compelled to write as if I were a McKinsey consultant and cringed with every keystroke.

This wasn’t me. But, we have a new product leader at Expedia and I’ve felt compelled to do what I thought was required to impress; my typical straightforward style simply wasn’t enough.

I’ve hyped up this product vision as a pivotal moment in my career. I feel I’m knocking on the door of a promotion. Nailing this vision will fortify my reputation with the people that matter and can influence my promotion decision, so I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself to get this right.

This exact pressure has encouraged me to try and over-engineer the product vision. I’ve been telling myself that it needs to be incredible and the only way for it to hit that high bar is to go well beyond what I’ve always done.

I’ve always had a desire to grow my skills and improve upon my weaknesses. Part of this journey is trying things out and failing, and there is no shame in this. A prerequisite to growth is failure.

But I’ve found a core difference in failure while being true to oneself compared to being inauthentic.

This contrast became clear in reflecting on my past work. Years ago, I created a product vision for our rooms and rates experience leveraging my straightforward approach. This was a solid, but imperfect vision; it missed some bigger strategic opportunities. Yet it was clear, actionable, and durable. The limitations of this vision taught me to think bigger about the potential impact and possibilities.

With this current vision, I’ve been spinning my wheels while deviating from who I am as a product manager. I’ve attempted four different vision templates, each more elaborate than the last, and nothing has really clicked. The harder I’ve tried to be someone else, the more my authentic voice and my clarity of thought have slipped away.

But I had an epiphany as I was relaying my struggles to my wife. If I want to create an amazing product vision and position myself to earn a promotion, I cannot do it on anyone else’s terms. Doing my absolute best work, the way I know how, will get me where I want to go. It must be true to me and my style.

I always provide feedback to other product managers on their work in the form of the most basic, straightforward questions.

The tables were turned. I knew I needed to ask myself the most basic, straightforward questions about the product vision.

A vision and strategy comprise answering some really basic questions:

- Why are we building this vision?

- Who are we building for?

- What are we building?

- When are we building it?

- How do we build it?

I rewrote my product vision using these questions as headlines. This made a clearer, more compelling vision that, most critically, sounded like me. I have more confidence in the direction and confidence in myself.

I dabbled in the overly complex, highly strategic, product jargon I hear about from product leaders on various podcasts. This is not for me, but continues to underscore the value and beauty of simplicity.

I’ve advanced in my career to this point by nailing the basics. I need to remind myself to have the confidence to continue on this path without being tempted to be what I think others expect of me.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson: I didn’t get to this state in my career by acting inauthentically. I got to this point by answering straightforward questions in as simple a manner as possible. I’m not a McKinsey consultant and don’t need to act like one. Sometimes the most impressive things are the most simple.