Product Management Methodology: Rely on Systems, Not People

Overwhelmed by Exploding Requirements and Delays?

How Systems Thinking Can Save Your Projects

Do you often find yourself stuck in never-ending demands, project delays, or users breaking your carefully crafted rules?

These frustrating issues often share a single root cause: over-reliance on human self-discipline.

Systems Thinking offers a better path — by restructuring goals, elements, and connections, you shift collaboration from depending on people to depending on systems.

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Common Pain Points

• Endless Requests: Sales or customer service casually heap new tasks onto you, instantly wrecking your priority list.
• Habitual Delays: Projects stretch like a rubber band; missed deadlines seem inevitable.
• Rule-Breaking Users: Your well-designed workflows are constantly bypassed, triggering endless alarms.

Root cause? We expect people to be perfectly disciplined — and that expectation repeatedly disappoints.

The real breakthrough is redesigning the system, not the person.

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From Weekend Chores to Work Challenges

The “Family War” Insight

Example: I hate mopping floors on weekends.

If I refuse, a casual remark like “Can’t you help a little?” could spark an argument — ruining the day.

This mirrors workplace frustrations:

We often lecture or criticize, hoping to “wake people up” so they’ll change.

Result: problems persist, patience erodes, relationships suffer.

My solution? Buy a robot vacuum.

No more dependence on self-discipline, no more arguments. The conflict point was eliminated.

> Lesson: Don’t try to fix people — fix the system.

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What Is Systems Thinking?

Ancient wisdom: “Fix the structure, not the person.”

Modern revision: “Build the right system instead of blaming individuals.”

Formula:

System = Goals × Elements × Connections

• Goals: Shared aims (e.g., “keep the home clean with minimal effort”). Misaligned goals create conflict.
• Elements: Components (people, tools, time). Asking individuals to change yields short-lived results.
• Connections: How parts interact. Key types:
• Reinforcing Loop: Clean → good mood → more cleaning → cleaner.
• Balancing Loop: Mess builds despite effort → equilibrium reached.
• Delay Effect: Benefits of habit-building show over time, not instantly.

True fixes focus on goals and connections — rules, mechanisms, structures — rather than human behavior alone.

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Case Study: Breaking the “Middle Platform Deadlock”

1. Challenges of a Low-Power PM

In 2021, I joined an education company using a middle-platform model:

• Response to requests took 2–3 weeks.
• My line’s needs were often deprioritized.
• Cross-team communication drained half my energy.

Example request (“Let tutors filter refunded students”) was ignored three times.

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2. Conventional Solutions (Dead Ends)

• Escalate to management — increases conflict (symptom fix).
• Plan earlier to align schedules — still dependent on others (cause fix).

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3. Root Fix: Redesign the Collaboration System

Key changes:

• Unified Goals: Serve all tutors, not just one line.
• Transparent Demand Pool: Company-wide priority list.
• Consensus Mechanism: Bi-weekly cross-team voting on priorities.
• Clear Role Rules: Define platform vs. business responsibilities.

We treated both teams as one unit with distributed roles.

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4. Results

• Request time cut from 2–3 months → 2 weeks.
• R&D utilization ↑ 40%.
• Satisfaction rose from very dissatisfied → generally satisfied.

The system now runs itself, eliminating constant chasing or arguing.

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Apply Systems Thinking Daily

Scenario 1: Demand Overload

Old Way: Nag people to follow process → ignored.

System Fix:

• Unified request template with business objective and value metrics.
• Auto-display average dev hours — builds cost awareness.
• Tiered approval chains by priority — rules enforce discipline.

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Scenario 2: Habitual Delays

Old Way: Pressure at stand-ups → stress, no change.

System Fix:

• Fixed release cycle (“bus schedule”).
• Full task visibility in project tools.
• Automatic alerts for overrun tasks — early intervention.

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Scenario 3: Users Breaking Rules

Old Way: Add notes beside actions → ignored.

System Fix:

• Double Confirmation for irreversible actions.
• Automatic Interruption of invalid inputs with clear prompts.
• Undo/Draft Options for recovery.

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The 3 Principles of Systems Thinking

• Don’t blame people first — check for systemic flaws.
• Adjust goals and connections before focusing on components (people).
• Seek root solutions:
• Symptom fix: suppress
• Cause fix: alleviate
• Root fix: eliminate

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Why This Matters for Modern Creators

Just as in product management, creators benefit from systems that ensure consistency and efficiency.

Example: AiToEarn官网 — an open-source global AI content monetization platform that:

• Connects AI generation tools
• Publishes across platforms automatically (Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, Bilibili, Rednote/Xiaohongshu, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, X/Twitter)
• Integrates analytics and AI model ranking

Impact: Content is created once, published everywhere — no reliance on self-reminders. This is systems thinking in action for creative productivity.

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By embedding System Thinking into your workflow, whether for tech teams or creative projects, you replace human-dependent discipline with self-running, fair, and efficient mechanisms — freeing energy for innovation and value creation.

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