145: Overcoming The Fear Of The Blank Page – Creative Blockbusters

Creativity and fear – daily realities for product managers

We product managers are inventing stuff most of the time. Whether it’s new features, or designs, or go to market materials, or just making decisions. And that means we are going to have creative blocks. A lot. That is, except for those times when we can steal stuff from others. Unfortunately, we can’t steal as much as I’d like!

And in fact, it’s not just creative blocks, it’s a form of chaos.

Last week I finally had an epiphany about a particular problem I have been facing at work, about something I need my team to work on. I knew the ultimate destination (2 years down the road). But I couldn’t see the starting section of the road.

And then, suddenly, it came to me last week.

It’s always a relief when that happens – and it’s terrifying getting to that point.

Creativity, invention, and chaos

The feeling of being in this state of not quite knowing how to make forward progress makes this quote from Frankenstein resonate with me:

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of the void but out of chaos.”
— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

(I got this amazing quote from Nathan Baugh’s excellent newsletter.)

Links

I have many articles and posts about creativity and fear and creative block busting.

• My previous episode on creative blockbusting.
• My articles on creative blockbusters (and beating the fear of the empty page).
  • The Painful Reality of “The Fear Of The Blank Page”
  • Product Management And Fear – Three Tips For Overcoming Creative Blocks
  • A Toolset For Getting Unstuck When Your Creativity Is Blocked
  • Start With The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work
• Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, the source (for me) of the “morning pages” concept.
  • 750words.com – the site I do my daily writing on.
• Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird, the source of the great “Write shitty first drafts.”
• Product management rules of thumb (podcast episode, article)
• The V.A.L.U.A.B.L.E. rubric for product requirements/functional specs
• More on the Cynefin (kuh nay fin) framework.
• Asking good questions – the 5 Ws and an H.
• Write the Amazon review first.

I’d ​Love ​To ​Hear ​From ​You!

Please leave a comment below or drop me an email at nils@nilsdavis.com.

And you can always buy my book, The Secret Product Manager Handbook, available in Kindle and paperback.

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