What do flying and product launches have in common?
Flying and product marketing have more in common than you'd think. Both are exhausting, exhilarating, and better with checklists.
The old joke goes:
Q: How can you tell if someone’s a pilot? A: Don’t worry, they’ll let you know.
So beyond giving into this compulsion, why is this relevant on LinkedIn?
Well, I’m preparing to be a guest on a podcast this week and the topic is how to make product marketing fun. Obviously fun is a relative term - unless you’re truly built different, you’d probably choose a a variety of activities over a product launch. But in attempting to distill my thoughts I realized that something else I consider ‘fun’ also has a lot of hard elements to it, and that’s flying.
Flying a plane is freaking fun. The first time I landed a plane solo was such an adrenalin rush that afterwards I had to sit in my car staring into space for a good 30 minutes before I felt safe enough to drive home.
But flying is also exhausting. Flying a small plane is more physical than you’d expect, and if it’s a hot and bumpy day you’re getting thrown around in the sky. It’s mentally draining. You’re listening to radios, looking for traffic, staying on the right altitude and heading, keeping an eye out for where you’d make an emergency landing if your engine throws a cylinder, and you’re generally aware of being in a tin can in the sky. It’s also a skill which degrades really quickly so you have to keep on top of it and every time you take off there will be something new you learn.
So why do I think it’s fun? There’s mastery associated with it. I am very, very, very far from mastery as a lowly PPL holder, but it’s a state of constant learning. Regardless of how regulated general aviation is, it’s an incredibly freeing experience to pick a destination and then fly yourself there. It’s something you can share with people around you - besides those that hate flying, most people are pretty stoked to get to take a joyride and see a different perspective on the world. And it creates an intoxicating sense of your own competence, which doesn’t sound cool but really is.
So how does this tie back to Product Marketing? The core tenets of flying - knowledge, safety, practice, continual learning - don’t seem fun on their own. But without them, you’re off your heading and you’re not getting where you need to go. The foundation is what creates the freedom, which allows you to have fun with it.
Also, checklists are dope and you shouldn’t overlook them.