It was a frisky December morning and we all were sitting in a steamy meeting room. Product managers, designers, engineers - we all were there to sum up the year we just had and plan for the new one.
Our leaders started with charts, graphs, numbers... I registered a few concealed yarns across the room. Then they talked about new deals our sales have closed, renewals and finally, our share price. I looked around the room and saw people blankly staring forward, it was clear everyone was looking for the next coffee break.
Rest assured, no one was motivated as a result of this session. But why? Numbers are important, right? New deals are important. Share price is important. All that could only be possible as the outcome of the good product work done by PM, designers and engineers. And yet, all these numbers are failing to motivate product people.
Motivation is complex and non-linear
It's hardly possible to go into details on motivation here, there's a whole branch of behaviour science dedicated to motivation. However, to simplify things a great deal, we can split motivation into two big chunks: Inner (intrinsic) and outer.
The most powerful motivation usually comes from within us. It's our dreams, our plans, our values - all that motivate us to act.
Then there's a contextual motivation rooted in incentives, positive or negative.
At the workplace, both apply. We have career aspirations or life goals and so we choose particular organisations or paths to realise those ambitions. We need to adhere to certain rules and bring value to be adequately compensated for our efforts. At a job, we interact with people in different roles with their own motivations, often unclear to us. Finally, we are part of a bigger job market so often our motivation is informed by what people in similar positions are getting for their efforts.
So why many people from the story above were not motivated by a presentation full of numbers? Mostly because it wasn't part of their inner motivation.
- When I was little, I really wanted to be increasing shareholder value, - said no one, ever.
Most people I know got into product management by chance. It was random, they didn't plan for it. Those who stayed and built a career in Product were mostly motivated by the opportunity to help people and build cool stuff along the way.
Now product management is like any other profession. People want to get into Product for so many reasons
- To be a mini-CEO (haha, no)
- For the money (there are better ways)
- To tell people what to do (no)
- For the glory (nope)
- To "make the world a better place" (in a very small and particular way, maybe)
- To build cool stuff (if you're lucky)
- For the work-life balance (hahaha)
Reflecting on my own motivation, I really love it if I can help solve people's problems with tech that is fun building. That's totally inner motivation - I love the process of building things and love it when those things can be useful for people. I will be doing this even when we are all on UBI and don't have to work to survive.
Like anyone, my motivation tends to fluctuate - at times I am all pumped up and eager, at other times I have low energy and cannot be asked. Those swings mostly are due to outer motivation or the lack of one. For example, if I am being asked to do something that doesn't serve a customer, or if I don't even know who the customer is, or if there's a ton of bureaucracy, or if I am not compensated adequately, or if my leaders don't share full context, or if everyone else has low motivation...
The scales of motivation
Inner motivation could often compensate for the inadequacy of outer motivation, but it's much harder the other way around.
You heard that quote before: He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
That's true, to a degree, in the case of workplace motivation. Very strong inner motivation might mean that one will work super hard, super smart and for free. The lack of inner motivation means that one would work badly if at all, no matter the crazy high compensation, tons of perks or the most vicious micro-management.
So you need both, you need people who have some inner motivation to do the jobs you hire them for. And you need to design outer motivation properly.
Using the example above, if all of us sitting in that steamy room were in fact shareholders - we would be paying more attention to what our leaders were saying. If instead of showing numbers first, they showed us customer reactions to our products - we would be paying even more attention. If then there was room to discuss all the cool tech we could be building - I am sure most of us would look forward to doing our best work and maybe even skipping a coffee break.