Unlikely Product Management Learnings from Amateur Dramatics
It was a beautiful Saturday, my wife was working, and I was at a loose end after a long week at work. Some friends had been in a musical a few months before, and there was a workshop with a local acting coach that they were going to. It sounded like a fun, different way to spend a few hours… Little did I know that it was the start of a months long commitment.
If you had told me on that summers day that I would be dressed in a floral frock coat and dancing around on the stage at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury I would have told you to stop winding me up, but that was exactly where I was on 9th & 10th February 2019, for three performances of “A La Emma” the story of Emma Hamilton, Nelson’s mistress. I played the nasty, misogynistic Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh (pronounced Fan-shaw or Harry F for short) and the caring newspaper editor James Perry. For those who don’t know the story I’d really recommend looking it up — it’s a great, but tragic, rags to riches epic set amongst some of the most famous events of the age including the Battle of the Nile and of course Trafalgar.
Standing under the lights was an amazing experience. As we waited for the show to start we were sat along the side of the stage in perfect stillness, mindfully contemplating our lines and the show ahead as we waited for the audience to settle. It was a lovely period of reflection before the weeks of rehearsals took over, and during this I reflected on the similarities between my day job as a product manager and the way the production had been crafted.
The Lean Musical
We were lucky enough to have a professional director helping us in the form of wonderful Sally Elkerton. The approach she took to guiding us to the performance felt familiar but I couldn’t place it until I was coaching someone in the art of the Lean Startup. We tried things during rehearsals that we accepted wouldn’t work. Characters were tweaked to help the overall story, with some of us changing roles completely, great examples of lean experiments that helped us refine our way towards the end product. The production itself involved the minimal amount of props and decorations. Costumes were basically the same the whole way through the performance, props were minimal, and ruthlessly cut if they distracted or caused problems on stage. Lighting plans were handled during dress rehearsals so as not to distract the cast from where the real magic would happen and everything was set on a plain black set.
The Scene Story
It wasn’t until a few weeks before the performance that we actually got to understand the plot of A La Emma in full, that was the first time that we all saw the entire musical. Instead of starting at the beginning and rehearsing or reading through the play, the script was divided into sections. It felt weird at first, as if we were missing the context of the overall story, but over time it made sense. Having these small sections allowed us to focus on the key part messages that we were conveying at each section in smaller groups. Actors were not required for every rehearsal, and we could go over individual sections multiple times in far more detail than if we were working on longer acts.
The parallels to writing good user stories and dividing a task into small segments, were obvious, but it really helped me to understand why they work so much better than long requirements documents. Small units of work allow us to limit the work in progress, in our case helping to make the burden of learning lines smaller. It also helped us understand the value of our scenes more acutely, I could have written the summary of the scene as a user story very quickly:-
As an audience, I want to be shown the manipulative, self centred and misogynistic nature of Sir Harry F, So that we understand his rejection of Emma Hamilton and her state of desperation
As the product developed we gained more context, and that gave us more ideas that we could try through our rehearsals. New props might be added, for example, James Perry needed glasses to help set him apart from the nasty Harry F. I also discovered that it helped me to switch between the characters and changed my movements and attitude.
The Balanced Cast
I often talk to teams about the concept of the balanced team, the idea that all members of the team have their own roles and specialism, but that all are also equal and can have an equal say in the direction of the product. For example, some of the best user features that we have developed in the past have come through group brainstorming sessions rather than from designers working in solo. Taking part in A La Emma felt very familiar from this point of the view. The Director had the overall responsibility for the direction of the show, but it incorporated the ideas of the cast members. Jane, our amazing playwright, had crafted the words that we would speak, but accepted changes and suggestions from the whole cast to refine it. Even the music became a collaborative experience as we implemented Jane’s words with Lewis’s soundtrack with our voices! Every role was respected, but it didn’t mean that we couldn’t take part or contribute ideas.
What’s Next?
The world of the theatre has opened my eyes to the power of the metaphor. I’ve always found explaining complex concepts easier when I use something unrelated that people are familiar with. Working with the cast of A La Emma has given me new metaphors to use to explain the value of some of the core product management tools that I use every day. I’d love to know what metaphors you use or have experienced that have helped you to build your practice and toolset!
