I have a confession to make. When I first picked up the rubix cube, I tried to solve it by cheating.
Honestly, in my heart of hearts, I didn’t set out to cheat at a children’s game, ummm, per se. I simply wanted to learn a way I could impress others and myself by solving the Rubix Cube over and over. So, I opened up a search engine, typed in “Universal Rubix Cube Solution” and opened up the first video link.
The video narrator said they found an easy way to solve it consistently and that anyone can learn to solve the cube in no more than 25 moves. The video had been viewed more than 28 million times.
So, obviously this was going to work. Sign me up.
Experiment, Fail, Learn, Repeat
Just in case you’ve never actually played with a Rubix Cube before. A Rubix Cube is a cube with six faces and each are covered by nine stickers. Each one a solid color. White, red, blue, orange, green and yellow. Generally it’s a diabolical gift from someone who hates you and truly wants you to know it.
Now the first thing the video discussed was the universal solution algorithm itself. L R2 B L’ R U2 F2 L B D U2 B L’ R2 B2 L’ D2 U L’ B2 U2 R2 B D2
If you haven’t seen Rubix cube notation before, it’s just a way of referencing the faces and which way you’re supposed to turn them. Each row and column can be turned clockwise or counter-clockwise to move the tiles to different faces.
Going into the video I had zero knowledge of this and basically set out copying the hand movements in the video. I just assumed I would just memorize a handful of moves and be done with it.
As I said, I’m not lazy. I just wanted to be able to solve the problem and I was willing to take the perceived quickest route to that end. However, after the first 20 or so attempts went poorly, I decided it was best trying to follow the steps instead of the persons hand movements.
This, as they say, is where the game truly began.
Working my way through a video, learning rubix cube notation and following this formula. I’m too embarrassed to say how many times I ran through the algorithm before finally throwing up my hands in frustration. Wondering aloud why I’m failing at this.
Little did I know I was never going to get anywhere. It was right there in the description, just below the “show more”.
“This video is a complete joke. 100% made up!There is no special ‘trick’ or lazy guys method for solving a Rubik’s Cube. This video was made as a response to obnoxious people who belittle people who have worked for years to solve the cube at incredibly fast times by claiming theres just a ‘trick’.”
This was a painful lesson.
Honestly, nothing wrong with the easy road. Lots of product ideation begins on the easy road. Things like, “I wish menus fonts at restaurants were bigger” or “I wish I had a heated butter knife”. Even for me, “I wish to solve a Rubix Cube consistently”.
However, the good news was there was a solution to my problem. Just not the easy one I set out to solve.
Also, because I spent quite a bit of time learning this SERIOUSLY BOGUS formula, I already learned two things. Ok, technically three things if you also count read the directions. One, that the Rubix Cube has a set notation that people use. Two, while this one wasn’t all that helpful, people do use smaller sets of steps (algorithms) to help solve parts of the cube.
There is an interesting correlation to the product managers responsibilities in general. They help influence and inspire others through their own language as well. Through their strategic thinking, collaboration, user science and empathy and, of course, quality of communication.
Even in early failure I had already learned quite a bit, the actual decision to continue seemed less intimidating once I had actually started something.
Take a step back and look at all sides of the problem…
The next lesson came pretty quick as well. When there isn’t a template to follow, you often create your own.
Solving the Rubix Cube is generally not about solving one of the faces. No one pats you on the back for solving one face. The challenge comes in solving one of the faces and not undoing all your work when you attempt to solve another. If you’ve ever tried to do this and failed, you have my sympathies. Trial and error alone may find some initial success, but it generally won’t last and is equally likely to end in frustration.
This is also something that continues to challenge many organizations, technical or otherwise. Even organizations with very smart people. Maybe even more so. Each group tasked with solving the problem comes in from a different point and that perspective has a way to influence how they see a problem. However, much like the challenges of the Rubix Cube, concentrating on a single perspective (or face), without being aware of how changes impact another will doom the product before you even start.
Instead as a product manager, we should approach most problems holistically. Instead of solving each side one at a time, build a layered solution that doesn’t improve one side at the cost of others
. This requires having a plan and making sure that works together. Ultimately no matter what face you choose to begin with, the goal remains the same. Solve the cube.
Develop and use an algorithm to fit the problem.
So I set out to built my solution holistically on a layer by layer basis. I was still feeling the burn from my earlier attempted when the term algorithm was mentioned again. There are about 5–7 algorithms any new Rubix Cube owner can learn to solve the cube.
Mercifully they aren’t 25 steps, usually 4–8.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awa4TAp8WZE
That’s Feliks Zemdegs and he is one of the best cubers of all time. I literally knew nothing of him before I started this journey. He currently holds the record for 3x3 and 3x3 one-handed with additional records in 5x5 and 6x6 average, and the 7x7 average. He also uses a number of algorithms to solve the cubes.
The job of an algorithm is a repeatable set of sequences that help you solve the cube effectively and easily. Despite my worries of “cheating” with a universal solution, you should never feel sorry about using one.
The realties of the cube are are that there are 43 quintillion possible legal combinations a 3x3x3 cube can take. That’s a lot of combinations with only one solution. As you try different scrambles and attempt to solve them, you’ll find that there are always certain structures in a more efficient solve solution.
You may have already noticed that almost all (successful) organizations are increasingly focused on creating value in a search for a competitive advantage. The product manager sits in the position of driver, aligner, fixer, strategist and observer. The more times you see how the results of the a product launch, you’ll start to notice similar patterns emerge.
Often times the ideation isn’t the hard part, the hard part is in having a plan and knowing which steps to follow. Not to mention getting others to agree to them as well.
Motivational models, business models, market and service models, capability sets. Combine them with understanding the people, process, information and technology that builds into the roadmap. Each is an integral part of building a great product, but knowing and determining what order to approach them in separates good product managers with great ones.
Keep calm under pressure and don’t give up.
Oh boy. This one is a hard one.
When I was going through the process of solving the Rubix Cube, it wasn’t making the mistakes at the beginning, it was making mistakes at the end.
Early on you’ll make a lot of mistakes. Let me repeat that, you’ll mess up a lot. You’ll also be learning with each new pass. With each new algorithm under your belt the early stages will get less complex the more you do them. Unfortunately, much like new products, you’ll be doing the early stages a lot and while you’ll get more comfortable with them. You may not be as comfortable with the later ones. The problem is, you’ll mess those up too. A lot.
Even using help from algorithms and having a process and plan, I still messed up at the end. Especially when you’re starting out, it doubly painful because you don’t have the knowledge to fix a simple mistake. So, you may need to undo some work and start a step again.
That’s fine. It happens. People make mistakes, the hard part is staying calm and moving past them.
I’ve definitely built many, what I considered, great products only to see it never see the light of day. Maybe it was the customer approach, or the marketing, development or my understanding of the market it was launching in. You’ll be expected to understand a lot and take a lot of heat for decisions.
Thinking outside the box.
One day my son had taken my Rubix Cube and switched two stickers. It was already a beaten up old Rubix Cube at this point and I had only solved it a handful of times at that point. However, one day I picked it up and set about to solve it. Obviously I didn’t know anything had been done to it.
I followed my process, used my algorithms and my cube was constantly left in an incorrect state. I was completely confused.
It was at this moment, as I was scratching my head that I realized that I wasn’t going to solve it. None of the stickers looked off, but I knew that I had to start again. At that point, I made the decision to disassembled my cube and reassembled it back into the correct state. Fresh.
Moments like this will happen in life. You need to know when to quit and start again.
Not all decisions around resetting and starting again may sit right with you. I didn’t want to break the cube and start again, I wanted to keep trying, but I knew something was off.
Decisions like this will happen once in a while, just own them and move on. That is, after all, the job of a product manager.