Thirty Customers First

Marty Cagan was an engineer who wanted to become a product manager. His mentor had one condition.

'I was not allowed to make any decisions for the team until after I visited 30 customers. 15 in the US, 15 in Europe.'

Marty thought he didn't need this. He was building products for developers. He was a developer. 'I know our customer.'

'And he said, Well, all I know for sure is that's never true.'

We make the same mistake with our kids. We think we know what they need because we were kids once. We were three once. We remember.

But do we? Have we sat and watched them? Really watched? Not to intervene, not to direct, but to observe? Thirty times?

Before you decide your child is 'shy' or 'aggressive' or 'not a good eater' - how many times have you just observed, without assumption, without judgment, without already knowing what you think you know?