Given that the article describes human consumer behavior as being stubborn and loss averse while seller behavior is described as eager and idealistic, I think that this disconnect lends itself to PMs to try and address the gap. I think that one of the biggest challenges PMs will face when trying to address this gap is “reality-checking” building teams without killing the creative process. PMs will have to accomplish this whilst trying to foster innovation, remain connected to the reality of user adoption, all the while considering company context (business goals, rate of return needed for certain products, etc).
In class we had talked about how when brainstorming ideas and features we shouldn’t limit ourselves or box our thinking. In fact, sometimes getting rid of consumer pessimism feels like a great start to get the creative flow moving. However getting stuck in these brainstorms could cause sellers to lose sight of who they are actually building for. Therefore, I think PMs should be able to temperature check their teams and know when it is right to brainstorm creatively without ceiling, but should also be able to loop this back in with user interviews and research in order to assess whether this is something that consumers would actually buy.
I think another challenge is that with incredibly novel innovations, consumers don’t even know what they would want and what would be worth adjusting to. For this particular example, I think of my grandmother who initially rejects every piece of technology that we introduce into her life, but will not stop raving about it after she has actually adjusted to it. I can think of many products in my own life that I wouldn’t have known I would need until after I had tried it. I think that PMs should be attuned to catching this irony. Even if a consumer does not know what they are missing with a particular product, I believe that trusting the design process of interviewing, testing assumptions, identifying opportunities gives PMs the unique ability to identify the value proposition of a product even if the consumer is not there yet.
Another thing for PMs to consider would be to consider business and market restrictions. The ability to experiment with incredibly novel products is something that not all companies can afford. I think that understanding the market and that particular companies circumstances is important here so that PMs are able to balance a ratio of selling and innovating that is fit for that particular companies mission, business, and technical goals. Here PMs can also work on features and products they consider safe, whilst also carving out time to flesh out riskier innovations that may take longer land with consumers given the stony buyers dilemma.
