This post is part of the ‘What Product Managers can learn from …’ series.It is also published in the Startup Edition.Just recently I re-watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a wonderful documentary about Jiro Ono, an 85 year old sushi chef from Japan who leads a tiny 8 seat sushi bar located in a Tokyo subway station. It repeatedly got awarded with 3 out of 3 Michelin stars and is known as the best place in the world to get sushi.I first stumbled upon the documentary a few months back when Jason Evanish published his own recommendation. Since then I’ve seen it a couple of times on various occasions and it always is a true joy to watch.I believe as Product Managers we all can learn a lot from Jiro, especially when it comes to hard nuts to crack like hiring, quality assurance and leadership …We live in a world of ‘good enough’. People talk about diminishing returns, finding the sweet spot and 80/20.We easily forget that in order to create something that truly stands out and delights customers it takes vision, passion and standards that are way beyond ‘standard’.

Often you will have to set your own standards since ‘industry standard’ or being ‘better than the competition’ will cause you to aim way lower than you could.I feel this is the reason why sometimes whole industries get disrupted by people who are ‘outsiders’ that naively expected way more than anyone of the incumbents was used to deliver.Set your own standards and live by them. I’m not surprised that everyone I know is drawn to the companies that produce the best products. Who cares about companies that do mediocre work? I don’t even want to imagine how hard it must be for these companies to attract talent.If you carefully watch the interactions and incredibly tight feedback loops of his team you will find that every time someone points out what could have been done better it is acknowledged and immediately executed. No arguing, no rationalization attempts, no excuses.His team is as motivated to strive for perfection as Jiro himself. If a shortcoming is discovered you will hear a short hai (yes, I understand) and people are back in the flow, striving to do better.

I believe it is an art to separate your own ego from the work you are doing. This is related to something I found in the Heroku values …On the one hand you want to be passionate about what you are doing but on the other hand you don’t want to let your ego get in the way of a better solution. You don’t win by being right all the time, you win by identifying things that are great wherever they came from.If you apply for a job at Jiro’s sushi bar you know what you are getting yourself into. It will take about 10 years of dedicated work until you’ll be allowed to cook tamagoyaki (egg sushi). It takes a long time of training and personal growth until Jiro considers you a shokunin (master craftsman).It seems like Jeff Bezos of Amazon also isn’t shy about communicating his expectations …This is what he told potential recruits back in 1997. In the middle of the dot-com bubble where hiring top talent was extremely difficult and in a climate where other companies were offering ridiculous employee perks.

Jiro and his staff are constantly preparing and tasting their ingredients and final products. Every day, many times a day.Eating your own dog food is a great way to get into the shoes of your customers. Many software companies test-drive preview versions of their products internally and or with a tiny fraction of their customer base before they release the changes to everyone.It is hard to assure quality if you don’t care about how your own food tastes like. sushi cape town belugaCaring more than others is a real competitive advantage. youda sushi chef 2 play onlineIngrained in the company culture and incredibly hard to copy.sushi online bestellen mainzMarissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo even refused to get broadband installed at home until the majority of US households got it in order to get an authentic experience of the products she was responsible for (back then at Google).sushi samba online booking

It makes a lot of sense to regard your suppliers as part of your team. panies like Apple take this to the extreme. They tightly work together with their suppliers to help them succeed. Tim Cook ,who led Apple’s operations for many years has built one of the most impressive supply chains of the IT world. Whether it is gorilla glass, CPUs, memory or other essential parts, Apple’s focus on healthy supply chain relationships is one of the reasons they are able to create the products people fall in love with.Jiro’s infinite passion about creating the perfect sushi is what drives all of the observations I made. Whether it is tightly controlling the supply chain, choosing to only work with the best people (whether that means his staff or his suppliers) or his obsession about helping people grow and enabling them to do their best — Passion is his fuel.If you find something you really care about, other things tend to fall into place. In the end everyone cares about great products & passion — customers, partners, investors, potential hires and employees.

If you found this post helpful follow me on twitter where I tweet about Software Development & Product Management ☺Also make sure to check out Blossom an Agile/Lean Project Management Tool I’m currently working on ☺ Here is some wisdom distilled from a great sushi chef on how to master your craft and live a life of success. "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" is a documentary on the life and craft of the great 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, who owns a tiny 10-seat shop in Tokyo that has the highest Michelin Guide rating of three stars. To get a seat you must make a reservation months in advance. The courses are carefully planned and the creation and serving of the meal is a multi-course symphony of sushi that some guests have even described as “stressful” yet an experience like no other. Jiro himself serves each course to his guests and carefully examines their faces as they taste his elegant works of edible art. What follows is the wisdom distilled from the great sushi chef on how to master your craft.

1. Learn from the best. Sometimes you must learn to fail before you learn to succeed. Yamamoto, a renowned Japanese food writer, says: “When you work for Jiro, he teaches you for free. But, you have to endure ten years of training. If you persevere for ten years you will acquire the skills to be recognized as a first-rate chef.” In Jiro’s restaurant, many apprentices do not make it to the next level. Yet there are those who persevere. For example, one of the apprentice sushi chefs tried over 400 times to make egg sushi that met Jiro’s standards of being worthy to be served. When he finally received Jiro’s approval, he was overwhelmed with joy and cried. Take away lesson: Only when you understand what it feels like to fail and try again will you be able to cherish the moment when you achieve success. 2. Don’t be afraid of having the same routine every day and working long hours. Yamamoto: “[Jiro] repeats the same routine every day. He even gets on the train in the same position.

He has said that he dislikes the holidays. The holidays are too long for him. He wants to get back to work as soon as possible.” Jiro’s oldest son, Yoshikazu: “It really comes down to making an effort and repeating the same thing every day.” Take away lesson: Today people talk about creativity stemming from novel experiences. This may be true. However, incremental improvement is the key to becoming a creative master of your craft. To reach the highest levels of creativity, sometimes you must slowly get better each and every day. 3. To be the very best you must have talent and be willing to develop that talent. Jiro: “In order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food. The quality of ingredients is important, but you need to develop a palate capable of discerning good and bad. Without good taste, you can’t make good food. If your sense of taste is lower than that of the customers, how will you impress them? When I think of someone with a highly acute sense of taste and smell the first person I think of is the great French chef Joel Robuchon.

I wish I were as sensitive as he.  I have a very good sense of smell, but he’s on another level. His sensitivity is very high.  If I had his tongue and nose, I could probably make even better food.” In other words, talent is relative. Yoshikazu: “There are some who are born with a natural gift. Some have a sensitive palate and sense of smell. That is what you might call ‘natural talent.’ In this line of business if you work hard you will get good over time. But if you want to reach the next level, you need talent. The rest depends on how hard you work.” Take away lesson: To become great in any domain, underlying talent matters. But what matters most is whether you are willing to develop the talent that you have to become the best that you can be. 4. Give your life to your craft and improve it daily. Never be satisfied with your work. Yamamoto: “I’ve seen many chefs who are self-critical, but I’ve never seen a chef who is so hard on himself. [Jiro] sets the standard for self-discipline.

He is always looking ahead. He’s never satisfied with his work. He’s always trying to find ways to make the sushi better, or to improve his skills. Even now, that’s what he thinks about every day, all day.” Jiro says that he gave his life to his work and that he never once regretted joining his profession. Take away lesson: Find a profession you are willing to devote your life to and never be satisfied with your product or your skill set. Improve them every day. 5. Don’t plan for Plan B. It’s the mindset to fail Plan A. Jiro: “When I was in the first grade, I was told: ‘You have no home to come back to. That’s why you have to work hard.’ I knew that I was on my own. And I didn’t want to have to sleep at the temple or under a bridge so I had to work just to survive. That has never left me. I worked even if the boss kicked or slapped me. Nowadays, parents tell their children, ‘You can return if it doesn’t work out.’ When parents say stupid things like that, the kids turn out to be failures.”

Take away lesson: While this “Jiro-ism” may go against conventional wisdom, Jiro points to this life moment for his mindset for greatness. Don’t rely on a safety net because it will prevent you from expanding beyond your perceived boundaries. Greatness will often come from necessity. 6. As a leader you may not always collaborate well with others, and that’s okay. Yamamoto says that a key attribute of great chefs is “impatience. They are better leaders than collaborators. They’re stubborn and insist on having it their way.” Take away lesson: There is a reason why we have the idiom, “too many cooks spoil the broth.” Today there is much praise about being a great collaborator to reach the top. And certainly collaboration is important. But the truth is that the leaders of any domain are often mavericks who are not fun to work with at all. If you are one of those leaders just remember that it’s okay to go your own way. 7. Master the art of simplicity.