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Founding PMMs, stop trying to change your CEOs mind all the time.
Have you heard the story: “The Flea and The Elephant?”
I can’t tell you how many times I walked out of a meeting thinking:
“Why are we doing this?”
“This isn't the priority we discussed last time”
“This direction makes no sense!”
“How do I change their mind?”
And in many cases I would fixate on changing their mind. I’d go searching for data and examples to bring them over to my side. Sometimes it worked. But more often, it was a waste of time.
But over time I changed up my approach. I had never heard the story of “The Flea and The Elephant”, but when I finally did earlier this year — it was the perfect metaphor.
It goes like this đź“–
Once there was a flea who believed he was king of the world.
Each day this flea would hop on his elephant and tell it where to go.
But the elephant had other plans.
And the elephant was an elephant.
So naturally, the flea was dragged all over the place.
Never where it wanted to go.
But one night the flea has an idea.
He turns to the elephant and says, “About tomorrow … um, what are YOUR plans?”
The author sums up the moral of the story like this:
“If you are a flea riding an elephant, before you make any plans, you might want to check out what your elephant has in mind.”
Too often, founding PMMs work in a silo on things like positioning, messaging, and content, only to get frustrated when their founder derails it.
So, if you’re a PMM working directly with a founder, before you make any plans, you might want to check out what they have in mind.
In other words, talk to them, get their perspective. Know what's on their wishlist and see where they want to go. You're then in a way better position to help steer the ship and influence in a way they'll actually be receptive to.
Or keep on trying to change their mind. Up to you.