Trust Is the Currency

Ian McAllister spent years managing product teams before he recognized what really mattered most for long-term success: trust.

'Trust is the currency of a product manager and a product leader.'

How do you build trust? The formula is almost boringly simple:

'Trust is just built by repeatedly setting and meeting expectations.'

Not exceeding expectations. Not surprising people. Just telling them what's going to happen, and then making that thing happen. Over and over.

'You tell the truth without fail. And you launch when you say you'd launch and you launch what you said you'd launch and you own your mistakes.'

With kids, this looks like: bedtime is at eight, and bedtime is actually at eight. We're leaving in five minutes, and you actually leave in five minutes. If you clean your room, we'll go to the park - and when they clean it, you go.

What destroys trust? 'If you lie or if you're evasive, if you don't ship what you said you're going to do, if you ignore your mistakes or you repeat them.'

Your child is constantly calibrating: does what this person says actually happen? Can I count on their words?

Trust isn't built by grand gestures. It's built by boring consistency. Set an expectation. Meet it. Repeat.