"It depends" isn't a cop-out.
It's the most honest answer in product management.
Every product manager gets asked for the silver bullet: "Should we ship fast or wait for quality? Should we delight customers or hit business targets?"
The honest answer, more often than not, is: It depends.
I used to think this made me sound indecisive. But after years of watching teams chase universal solutions that don't exist, I've realized something liberating.
"It depends" isn't a cop-out. It's the job.
Recently, my VP asked when we could deliver changes to a landing page to test their impact. We had two options: a quick configuration change that would give us partial insights, or a couple-week build that would deliver meaningful value but delay our testing.
"How do we make it the most useful and fastest?" they asked.
I had to be honest: "In this case, we can't have both."
This wasn't a conversation they were used to having. But here's what I've learned: the most successful product teams don't eliminate these tensions - they navigate them.
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Five tensions that define product work.
The most common product dilemmas aren't problems waiting for solutions. They're ongoing tensions that require constant calibration.
Take speed versus quality. Early-stage startups need to move fast to learn. Mature products can't sacrifice quality without losing trust. The "right" answer changes based on context.
Here are the five tensions that define product work:
Speed vs. Quality - Are you racing to learn or racing to last? Winner-takes-all markets reward speed. Reliability-dependent products reward quality.
Innovation vs. Maintenance - Your users want new value AND stable foundations. The question isn't which to choose, but how to balance both.
Customer Delight vs. Business Goals - The best decisions solve user problems while moving business metrics. When they conflict, context matters.
Focus vs. Optionality - Double down when you've validated your core bet. Keep options open when you're still searching for product-market fit.
Confidence vs. Uncertainty - Lead with conviction when you have data. Embrace humility when you're exploring.
Managing paradox, not solving it.
It took me years to realize that stakeholders were so focused on shipping every idea that they rarely stopped to consider whether those ideas actually succeeded. They didn't account for our limited capacity or recognize that making a choice could accelerate our learning.
Once I embraced this approach, everything shifted. Instead of big-bang releases, I started shipping smaller doses to production. This gave me more "at bats" - more real experiences to draw from when explaining why this approach works.
Great product managers develop the judgment to navigate these tensions:
Expose the variables. Don't just say "it depends" - articulate what it depends on. Make your reasoning visible.
Frame the trade-offs clearly. Show stakeholders the choices, not just the conclusion.
Communicate your context. Explain your reasoning: "Given our stage and user feedback, here's why we're prioritizing X over Y."
Build adaptive frameworks. Create decision-making processes that adapt to changing contexts.
Embrace experimentation. When uncertain, design small experiments to reduce risk before committing fully.
Confidence that comes from uncertainty.
The most confident product leaders aren't the ones who never say "I don't know." They're the ones who can articulate what they don't know and how they plan to find out.
Going back to that landing page scenario: We chose the quick implementation first. The data showed incremental lift, giving us evidence to invest in the comprehensive version. By embracing the tension rather than fighting it, we got both, just not simultaneously.
Here's what changed once I stopped apologizing for contextual answers: stakeholders started trusting my judgment more, not less. When you can explain your reasoning and show how you'll validate assumptions, "it depends" becomes thoughtful leadership, not indecision.
A moment of truth.
Think about the last time you felt pressured to give a definitive answer when the honest response was "it depends." Did you cave to the pressure, or use it as an opportunity to educate?
Next week, when someone asks for the "best practice," try this: "Here's how I'd approach it given our context, and here's what we'd need to learn to know if we're right."
The paradoxes aren't problems waiting to be solved - they're the terrain where real product leadership happens.
Until next week,
Mike @ Product Party
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Great post!
And thanks for the link :-)