Product Managers: The Experimentalists and Theorists of the Modern Age

Let’s dive into the thrilling world of product management, which – brace yourselves – is somehow both the most boring phrase ever and the job that determines what we all compulsively click on every single day. Yes, the people who decide why your favorite app has four different subscription tiers but still can’t remember your login are the unsung heroes of the digital age.

But here’s the kicker: product managers are like physicists. That’s right – Newton, Einstein, Tesla, and yes, your coworker Karen with her endless PowerPoint slides about “synergy.” You see, much like physics in the early 20th century, product management is splitting into two camps: theorists, who strategize big ideas, and experimentalists, who roll up their sleeves, break stuff, and then fix it (sometimes).

So let’s dig into this divide – and figure out why your favorite apps are so good, so bad, or just plain confusing.

The Theorists: Masters of the Whiteboard

Ah, theorists. These are the folks who love saying things like, “What if we’re not building a product – we’re building a movement?” They live in a world of ideas, powered by market trends, competitive analysis, and enough buzzwords to make a TED Talk sound understated.

They’re the ones who’ll say, “What if we pivoted into a subscription model?” without ever worrying about the poor experimentalist who has to figure out how the hell that works.

Example: Theorists include folks like Satya Nadella at Microsoft, whose vision turned the company into a cloud-based juggernaut. He strategized a move to Azure and SaaS models, basically saying, “Let’s stop selling software once and instead charge people forever.” And it worked! The man turned Excel into a subscription. That’s not just strategy; that’s diabolical brilliance.

The Experimentalists: Mad Scientists of the Product World

Then we have the experimentalists. These are the people who will say, “Okay, you want a ‘movement’? Cool. Let me duct-tape together a prototype and see if it crashes the server.” They are the ones actually building, testing, and fixing things – and then crying quietly when the theorists say, “This looks great, but can we add AI?”

They thrive on experimentation, user feedback, and a little bit of chaos.

Example: Enter Sheryl Sandberg during her time at Facebook. Her genius wasn’t just in big ideas but in making them work. She led the charge to monetize Facebook’s platform through advertising experiments that, love it or hate it, created a multibillion-dollar machine. Every “like” you’ve clicked on has been part of her grand experiment.

The Clash of the Titans: Theorists vs. Experimentalists

When theorists and experimentalists come together, magic happens. Or, you know, complete disaster – like when someone decided we needed a foldable phone.

Here’s how it works in an ideal world:

1. The theorist says, “Users need a feature that helps them feel connected.”

2. The experimentalist says, “Cool. I’ve built a feature where users can send hugs through their phones.”

3. The theorist: “Actually, I was thinking more like a TikTok dance filter.”

4. The experimentalist: deep sigh, goes back to the drawing board.

Real-World Example: Take Spotify. The theorists are the ones who said, “Let’s use AI to create custom playlists for every user!” A brilliant idea. Then the experimentalists were the ones who ran hundreds of iterations to figure out why “Your Daily Mix” kept recommending Nickelback to people who’d never even heard of Nickelback.

Millikan’s Lesson: Why This Matters

Now, let’s take a page from physics. Remember Robert Millikan, the experimentalist physicist who painstakingly measured the charge of the electron? Imagine him working with Einstein, the theorist, who’s off saying, “Hey, everything is relative!” Millikan’s response would likely be, “Cool story, Einstein. I’m going to go drip some oil for three months and prove you wrong – or right.”

Product management needs both roles: the dreamers and the doers. Without theorists, experimentalists have no direction and just keep building random stuff. Without experimentalists, theorists are left with beautiful plans that never actually work.

Why It Matters

So, why should you care about whether product managers are theorists or experimentalists? Well, because these are the people who decide what your apps, devices, and software actually do. The best product managers are the ones who balance vision and execution – but let’s be honest, most of them are just figuring it out as they go, like the rest of us.

At the end of the day, the theorists need the experimentalists, the experimentalists need the theorists, and we all need our apps to stop asking us if we want to rate them.

Thank you for reading my TED Talk – or, as product managers would say, my MVP.

References

• Blank, S. (2013). The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win. Wiley.

• Christensen, C. (1997). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business Review Press.

• DuBridge, L. A. and Epstein, P. A. (1958). Robert Andrews Millikan: 1868–1953. Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Kargon, R. H. (1982). The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science. Cornell University Press.

• Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Crown Publishing Group.

• Nadella, S. (2017). Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone. Harper Business.