Getting to the Bottom of Things: Looking Beyond Users’ Proposed Solutions to Their Real Needs

Verification notes (2026-11-02): This article excerpts Wang Daiming’s (ToB老人家) “The Spirit of Getting to the Bottom of Things Determines a B2B Product Manager’s Growth Potential,” published by 人人都是產品經理 (Everyone Is a Product Manager) on August 24, 2020. The original post does not include the distribution-report example from the middle of the source article. First-person statements and team leadership experience belong to the source author. Claims that someone’s career prospects are destined to be bleak are the author’s management judgments, not empirically guaranteed career outcomes. The originally linked WeChat page currently displays only an account-migration notice; the accessible original publication page was used for comparison. Source: https://www.woshipm.com/pmd/4150811.html ---- Getting to the Bottom of Things “Jiujing” is a Buddhist term conveying thoroughness and completeness. In plain language, it means pursuing a question until you get to the bottom of it. One characteristic of B2B product work is that product managers are often not users of their own products. They therefore need to act as requirements analysts: analyzing users’ needs and ultimately translating them into product prototypes. Proposing solutions is a natural human response. When users express a need, they may also propose a solution. Product managers who lack an independent view can easily give in to that proposal. But in my experience, “Always believe users, and never believe users.” Believing users means accepting that a need they express reflects a real difficulty they face. Not believing users means not expecting them to analyze their needs thoroughly; their proposed solutions often treat symptoms in isolation. Users should not be blamed for this. For them, achieving business objectives is what matters most; business systems are merely tools to help achieve those objectives. When faced with users’ needs, good product managers tend to ask a few more “whys.” I call this habit “getting to the bottom of things.” There is no doubt that this mindset helps product managers truly understand users’ needs, avoid developing unnecessary features, and find the right solutions. Whether product managers have this mindset also largely determines their future growth potential. Those who do face a steep upward trajectory; those who do not will remain at a low level for a long time. Of course, getting to the bottom of things is less an innate ability than an acquired habit. Early in my career, I wasted considerable time because I lacked it. Once I experienced its enormous benefits, however, I gradually incorporated it into my work and life until it became a habit. I also made it part of my management approach, consistently setting expectations for team members to help them become better product managers. ------ How to Develop This Mindset Getting to the bottom of things means making a habit of resolving every question. Whenever I discuss requirements with business stakeholders, if I do not feel that I fully understand the underlying business logic, I keep asking questions until everyone understands it thoroughly and reaches agreement. We need to develop this habit: when a business issue remains unclear, find a way to understand it completely—whether by seeking further advice privately or asking the people directly involved on the front line. At first, this way of pursuing questions to their conclusion may feel unfamiliar. But once you experience its benefits, I believe you, too, will gradually develop the habit. Getting to the bottom of things means making a habit of demanding the best possible outcome. Whenever a team member reports a difficulty, I ask a few more “whys.” For example, if a team member says a project will be delayed, I ask why. If the answer is that a sudden major reorganization means the project’s opening data must be compiled again, I ask how much time and how many people that will take, and whether the delay can be avoided. If further obstacles emerge, we keep exploring reasonable solutions until we either find a way to meet the original schedule or conclude that a delay really is the best course of action. Demanding the best possible outcome means applying this thorough mindset to “how to complete a task perfectly.” It can help individuals and teams grow rapidly and fundamentally reflects self-driven growth. Managers are fortunate to have teams with such high standards. If they do not, their responsibility is to build that kind of team. ------ Getting to the bottom of things is an attitude and, more importantly, a habit. A B2B product manager without it is destined to have bleak growth prospects. With it, a product manager may quickly mature and build a product that benefits others—even society. Original article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lhP7l9T6ZbbH-deyfCvcFQ