By Matteo Gambino, MiM2024
At every product manager’s heart lies one question: “How do you define success?”. Back in 2001, while writing his Agile Manifesto, Jeff Sutherland had already understood the centrality of this short yet baffling question. In Agile, success is often defined as delivering value to the customer, maintaining a sustainable work pace, and fostering team collaboration and satisfaction. This seemingly trivial effort repeatedly marked an important difference in my career, as marking the perimeter of success is key to communicating clearly to stakeholders – no matter the circumstances. Funnily enough though, repeat this exercise long enough and you will start asking yourself why you haven’t been applying it to your personal life.
While at first, you may think that you’re the only one to have developed such a brilliant idea, let me reassure you – this is a fundamental step every product manager goes through. Throughout my (young) career, I have met far more senior product people who have tried them all – from engineering their daily tasks in biweekly sprints to running retrospectives on their personal lives. With so much inspiration coming from around me, I couldn’t stop myself from asking the fateful question once I received my admissions letter at LBS. How was I going to define success for myself during my time at one of the world’s best business schools? Now that I’ve completed my program, I can honestly reflect on my initial answer—it was far from comprehensive. I realized I had overlooked many crucial aspects that would shape my experience. Without further ado, here’s my take on how to take charge of your success while navigating life at LBS.
Understanding the Experience
A Masters programme at LBS can shape your life and your career in many ways, though arguably some may fit your definition of success better than others. In primis, you should reflect on your reasons for having chosen to apply to the specific program you were admitted to: are you trying to make a career move into a new role, or are you planning to pursue further education to gain seniority within your industry?
Establishing your initial reasons for applying to LBS will help you to categorize your focus into one of the 3 key areas every programme offers: Social Experiences, Professional Growth and Academic Development. As per the graph below, you can see how every one of these aspects can contribute positively to your growth, and how certain activities, such as student clubs and networking events, may even contribute to multiple areas at the same time.
During your time at LBS you will certainly be faced with an overwhelming amount of networking events, social gatherings, classes and interviews – and you will soon realize your schedule can only fit a fraction of the possibilities offered by the School. So how can you go about choosing what matters the most to you?
Defining Your Success Metrics
To effectively manage your LBS experience like a PM would, it’s crucial to establish clear, rational and measurable success metrics. Most managers will rely on an OKR system to derive these, subdividing wider Objectives which would shape the company’s trajectory into smaller Key Results that can contribute to their achievement. Adapting this approach to the LBS Program can easily be accomplished in three steps:
1. Set SMART Key Results
Begin by setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART) goals for each of the three key areas (Social, Professional, Academic).
a) Social Experiences: e.g., “Forge meaningful connections with at least 20 classmates from diverse backgrounds by the end of the first term.”
2. Prioritize Your Efforts
Once you have your Key Results laid out in a table, you should associate a relative weight to accomplishing each of them. What would have the largest impact on your short-term vs long-term growth?
3. Track Your Progress
Implement a system to track your progress towards your goals. I find Jira boards to be the perfect tool to keep tasks under control, but I could also recommend using Notion (this simple Goal tracking board) or a spreadsheet if you prefer a lighter interface.
Adapting Your Strategy
In his “How to Be an Expert in a Changing World” essay, YC co-founder Paul Graham emphasises the importance of questioning our beliefs and consistently reviewing our strategies to make sure they are well updated. Product management is, after all, an iterative process. As you proceed through your LBS journey, be prepared to adapt your strategy.
As a first, I cannot overstate the importance of running regular Self-Retrospectives. A Retrospective is nothing more than a structured opportunity to review your progress by asking yourself 3 simple questions:
- What’s working well?
- What challenges am I facing?
- What opportunities am I missing?
Though these may sound trivial, writing down our thoughts and expressing our perceptions is the best way to find rational improvements to our method.
Expanding on the previous point, seeking feedback is paramount to spot adjustments that we may be too short-sighted to notice. Just as product managers gather user feedback, you should seek input from peers, professors and mentors. Their perspectives can provide incredibly valuable insights and help you course-correct. Furthermore, since you will have already laid out your challenges and opportunities clearly during your Retro, you will be able to provide anyone with the perfect grounds to offer helpful feedback.
At last, don’t forget where we started from: PMs are Agile. You should not be afraid to pivot if your initial goals no longer align with your evolving aspirations. The LBS experience is about growth, and I can speak through my own experience saying that I had to adjust my focus quite a few times. Adapting to change forges a sharper sword than accurately forecasting the future, as the unpredictable can reshape any battlefield.
On a Final Note
Quoting Paul Graham again, in his “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” essay he offers us great insights into how a single meeting could break the day apart for someone who is dealing with complex problems (a “maker”). During your LBS path you will certainly face days packed with excitement, but there will be times to work hard. You will want to make sure to protect your “Maker time” – those crucial periods when you need to dive deep into complex problems, whether they’re related to your coursework, career planning, or personal development.
Ultimately, owning your success at LBS means taking charge of your learning, your growth, and your future. My year at LBS passed in the way a year does, and soon I was left with only one stage walk separating me from my future. Making sure to be intentional in your choices is the best way you can make sure you will own your success… As your LBS story is yours to write!