In my first job, working in internal sales, I learned a valuable lesson about automation. Part of my training involved activating SIM cards and flashing a secret PIN code onto each one of the SIM cards to prevent misuse. It was a simple, repetitive task, and my initial reaction was that this probably was not the best use of my time.
I raised the concern with one of the business leaders, who took the time to walk me through the logic. He asked me to estimate how many SIM cards I expected to sell over the coming year, and then how long it would take to prepare each one. We broke it down into monthly, weekly and daily volumes. The result? Around ten minutes of work per day. I stopped complaining and got on with it. The cost of automating the task simply did not justify the time it would save. Later, when our operations scaled and expanded internationally, automation was introduced at a completely different level. But I once calculated back: I manually flashed ten thousand SIM cards.
When it comes to product metrics, I often see Product Managers respond in a similar way. If a particular indicator is not readily available, the reaction is often frustration. Surely there must be tools to automate the data. And yes, it absolutely makes sense to invest in those tools. But what is wrong with putting in a little effort each week or each month to collect the data manually, even if it’s just in Microsoft Excel? How do those few minutes of your time compare to the development effort required from Engineers to automate it? Sometimes, the answer is simple: get on with it!
Part of the DNA Insights woven through the book The DNA of a Product Manager.
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