Steve Johnson has a video on his site that shows a wonderful optical illusion. I’ve embedded it here for your viewing convenience.
This video is a great example of how important a role perspective plays in how we interpret our environment.
Perspective is also incredibly important for people when researching, designing or building products.
Specifically for Product Managers, it’s important to be conscious of how your perspective (your background knowledge, assumptions and existing viewpoints) on a situation influences how you interpret it.
To maximize your perspective, and avoid false assumptions and conclusions, try to get as many inputs as you can when researching requirements. This does not simply mean talk to more people, but make a conscious effort to to improve your domain knowledge, document and validate your assumptions clearly, and talk to different types of people in different roles, in different types of companies and with different needs.
It’s actually quite amazing how much insight you can gain by consciously broadening your perspectives on a given situation.
Saeed