The ONLY 3 Questions You Ever Need

What do product managers do?

For years, I’ve answered this question by saying “we’re the people who decide what to do next”.

But that led to another question… How do we decide what to do next?

It turns out that before we answer that, we must answer two other questions. Together, I call these “The 3 Questions you will EVER need” (with shorthand options):

1. Where do we want to go → Where To?

2. Where are we coming from? → Where From?

3. Where should we go next? → Where Next?

These questions were inspired by Google Maps. Yes, you read that right. Think about it: when you use the app, the first step is to choose the destination, then you confirm your departing point, and lastly, you pick your transportation mode. More importantly, think about how much trust you have in Google maps, it tells you to turn right or left or get off the highways and without a second thought you follow its lead.

Which is why these three questions are so universal, and are the most important ones you can ever answer, not just as a PM, but as a person. You can answer them about your products, your leadership, and even in life! The important thing is to answer them in the right order.

Let’s look at each one in detail.

 

If you don't know where you are going, how will you know that you got there?

1. Where To?

The first question should get you thinking about where you want to go. This is the first question because without knowing your destination, how will you know that you got there? It is so important that Where To? has become the focus of my public speaking, where I emphasize the value of being a vision oriented leader.

This can be called vision, mission, goals, objectives, intents… But I prefer a term that sums it all up, North Star. Terminology aside, the answer to this question should be something you want the future to hold. Not what you or other people THINK should happen, but a future that you WANT. A future world where people have a better life because of your actions. A future that inspires people to want to work with you to make it a reality.

The North Star indicates the way. Regardless of where you are, or how dark it is around you, it keeps showing you the direction to head towards. If it can help ancient sailors navigate the vast oceans, just think about what it can do for you and your team.

Answering this question keeps your focus aligned with the long-term goal. Without it, it’s easy to get lost in short-term thinking, distractions, or endless pivots that move you away from what truly matters.

Think of your “Where To?” as how you want to serve your customers, partners, and stakeholders DIFFERENTLY than what the current reality is. That means you have to now evaluate how you CURRENTLY serve them, what I call “Where are we coming from?”

2. Where From?

In “Escaping the Build Trap”, Melissa Perri mentions “the current state must be measured and quantified BEFORE work starts towards your vision”.

This allows you to make informed decisions that leverage your strengths. And you can only understand what are your competitive advantages when you analyze yourself / your product / your organization, and the context in which you operate.

SWOT analysis helps greatly with this. They allow you to think about yourself internally, by defining your Strengths and Weaknesses, but also externally, identifying Opportunities and Threats. Look at the whole picture of where you are, where the market is, where it seems to be heading. See how your current products and services fit into the “Whole Offer” (from Mohanbir Sawhney ) and see what’s missing.

 

Your product's whole offer includes how customers discover, buy, install, use, integrate, and service your product. I learned about the concept from @Mohan Sawhney

Once you’ve understood the good the bad and the ugly, it’s time to choose a focus. As Nicolaj Siggelkow puts it, “strategic decisions are those which leverage your competitive advantages and unique strengths”.

This means that you need to look at your STRENGTHS more than your weaknesses and figure out how to leap frog from that strong foundation to your next step. When we venture too far away from our defensible moat, we don’t tend to be successful because we are practically starting from scratch. So where should we go next?

3. Where Next?

Unfortunately, this question is where most people start.

But you should only begin to contemplate your options AFTER answering the two other questions. When you start with “Where To?” and “Where From?”, you realize there are plenty of different options on how to reach your vision. Starting there requires a strong investment in discovery and potentially some tree diagrams, but it’s the surest way to succeed.

When I worked with Melissa Perri, we identified three main categories of “Next” steps in business growth. These are: increase revenue, protect revenue, and reduce costs. For each, we further identified specific strategies. We come up with 16 ways to support either one or more of the business goals - you can read them all here.

If you think about it, it’s how Google Maps operates.

When defining an itinerary, it’s not enough to enter your destination and starting point. You also need to establish your means of transportation - are you walking, driving, biking, taking public transportation, or an Uber? In business terms, you need to figure out how you’re implementing your strategies. Are you building, buying, or partnering up with other companies?

An important aspect to keep in mind is that you should say YES to VERY FEW ideas. Ideas come from everywhere, but not many fit into your vision. Saying NO is good, it means you’re preserving your focus.

The Cycle of the 3 Questions

These questions are not designed to be used once and then set on a shelf. The intention is for them to be in constant use to assist with decision making. Though the answer to Where To? may not change for a few years, Where From? and Where Next? are evolving every minute.

Therefore, on a highly regular basis it is important to quantify and qualify how are we doing against our goals and see where we are now, aka where are we coming from right now? Have we gotten closer to our desired destination or have we backtracked?

From our precise current location, we then choose where we should go next. It may or may not be what was previously planned. Hopefully as we take actions, we are also learning, and when we incorporate those lessons into our strategic thinking new ideas for what we could and should do next will surface. Don’t be attached to your to-do list, always focus on what will be highest impact on getting you closer to Where To?

 

The Where To? Where From? Where Next? Decision Loop

The Only 3 Questions You Ever Need in Leadership

The same three questions apply when you’re in a leadership position.

The difference is that, as a leader, you will never answer all three questions. Your job is to understand which of the three questions YOU should answer and EMPOWER teams to answer the others.

These ideas are discussed thoroughly in Marty Cagan’s book Empowered, if you want to learn more about it.

Note that your primary job as a leader is to figure out “Where To?”, to define the north star which guides other decisions including what to research for Where From? and what to prioritize for Where Next? Not only must you set the direction, you must also communicate the chosen destination clearly so that the teams understand it and have a vision in their heads of the future you will be creating together.

Adam Harmetz, VP of Product at Microsoft puts this idea in the form of the Product Leader’s Serenity Prayer, which I love, and will share with you:

Give me the patience to let current experts make the call.

Give me the strength to chart new courses when patterns are shifting.

Give me wisdom to know the difference.

Conclusion

I further explore the ideas in this article in my talk “The Only 3 Questions You Ever Need”.

You can watch the recording of my presentation at Productized, or book me to provide the Where To? talk to your team! I’m on a mission to give this talk 100 times until the end of the year, and would love to do a session for you! You can book it here.