John Cutler
Is the Patient Dying?
Inspired by John Cutler episode
John Cutler: hardest part of leadership is knowing when to intervene vs. let things play out. Triage like a doctor: dying or uncomfortable?
Is The Patient Dying?
Product managers are supposed to triage ruthlessly. You know, is the patient actually dying or do they just want a new feature? It's a whole framework.
Parenting is the same question, except you're asking it at 2am while someone's screaming about socks. "Are you dying or is the blanket on wrong?" And here's the thing—they never know either. They're just as confused as you are about the severity of the situation.
The problem is, in product management, if you get it wrong, someone writes a stern email. In parenting, if you get it wrong, you find out at 3am that yes, actually, they *were* dying. Well, not dying. But throwing up. Everywhere. So now you're doing triage in the dark, wondering if this counts as an escalation or if you're just being dramatic.
You learn to spot the false positives. "My snack broke" is not a P0. But you have to check. Because one time it really was appendicitis and you almost Googled it away.
