Digital products as something we can manage, not a problem to be solved.

I was reading my weekly dose of Esther Perel and got to this phrase:

"(…)a paradox we can manage, not a problem to be solved."

What a lovely insight it brought me.

Often times people approach a digital product of a startup as a problem to be solved. But the more I walk this path I get the impression that building a startup product is not about solving a problem but managing a complex living breathing thing, operated by people.

If we go into this with a problem-solver mindset, we might:

● have the misconception that is just about doing the next feature and we'll be ok, that we're always in the verge of achieving, that there's only this next thing to be built and we'll get there.

● expect and demand from other people — devs, product owners, designers — to get us something that cannot be done.

Of course, building value is about concrete stuff. But there's so much about building a startup that is intangible and we must trust the process of doing it, again and again, learning and adapting along the way.

So much of what we do is unsolvable.

The tough questions we face are not about what is right and wrong, those are the easy ones.

The real questions are about what is more right, or what is less wrong.
And that's why we need managers, not solvers.