One way to become a better PM is to question decisions made by other Products/PMs and see if you can understand the framework behind that decision.

Example: If you have taken a Uber you know that they send a ‘Sorry that you canceled your ride. Click here to get help’ push notification. That notification opens the m.uber booking flow instead of Support. But the call to action in the notification was to get support right?

Why?

Is it because they realized that X % of their users after clicking on that notification eventually end up booking another ride anyway? If that is the case why not open Uber app’s booking flow even? That was the original client used? Or maybe the flow is just broken and no one bothered to fix it.

Another example: Uber launched OTP feature recently. For my girlfriend at least, they sent a notification with the OTP but they did not show the OTP inside the app. Since in iOS, they don’t have persistent clubbed notifications which update with the latest one, the notification got lost amongst dozen other notifications (most of which were uber notifications). And since she was getting on a ride with OTP for the first time on Uber she was super confused when the Auto driver asked for the OTP.

Now is it because Uber wanted a faster GTM for this feature? Wanted to test it without doing a lot of client-side changes on the rider app? Or maybe it was a bug. Maybe they did not think of iOS?

I find it super interesting to think about the trade-offs made for this OTP feature.

What I am trying to say is: Think of all the products you use on a day to day basis. Don’t just use it as a user. Think like a designer or a PM. Ask questions. That is the best way to learn how to be a better PM.