The Tin Roof on the Dunny

in Australian slang, a 'Dunny' is an old-fashioned toilet/outhouse commonly found on a farm.

When I first started out in this crazy world called product, one of my first managers had a phrase that was uniquely ‘Australian’. This phrase has stuck with me throughout my career.

‘It’s the tin roof on the dunny again…’

So… Quick Translation (for those not fluent in ‘Aussie’)

Dunny = Toilet = An outhouse/external toilet typically found on a farm.

Typically the roof of an outhouse would be made of corrugated iron (metal = ‘tin')

As my manager (Marion) would say:

“You can show the greatest of plans, have prioritised backlogs, the slickest presentations known to man. You can call out all of the most important, most concerning focus areas to the business and they will not see it.

What they will see is the tin roof on the dunny. They will focus on what they can see and understand, what they can relate to.”

Marion’s point was that we cannot ignore the things the business focuses on, no matter how small they are to the broader product vision or our strategy, they are important to decision makers and will continue to crop up, all…the…time…

This does not mean we only focus on the tin roof though. We need to call out these ‘issues’ for what they are, part of the general infrastructure of our product ecosystem, but not necessarily integral to it.

A real-world example:

I was reminded of this analogy recently when someone I am mentoring brought up the reaction in a recent Sprint review.

Some major infrastructure work had been continuing for a period of months. From a value perspective, this work will enable greater data accuracy. The Product Manager involved had projected the infra cost savings for making these changes, showing significant financial upside to the work their team had completed.

On the demo, the presentation was sidelined, the discussion turned to whether the notification icon in the application was substantial enough, was it the right shade of ‘red’…

This happens more often than we would like as product people. The best laid plans and all of that.

We are never going to change people’s predisposition to focus on things they understand rather than what we think is the priority/what we prepare for, it is a natural part of the corporate game.

It is also naive to think that this is simply a presentation issue, I have witnessed first-hand the repercussions when leadership blame product for inability to communicate rather than an inability to comprehend. It never ends well for the business.

So what is the solution?

Acknowledgement without Acceptance

1. We all need to acknowledge the ‘Tin roof on the dunny’. Dismissing issues seen as trivial to product only makes things worse. We are storytellers at heart and it is our job to acknowledge the issues raised and communicate appropriately as to how they will be managed… at another time.

2. It takes a lot of practice and even the most seasoned of us will lose hours to discussions that run off topic however all we can do is note the concerns and have a process to deal with them.

Better ‘Ideas Management’

1. This is your process to deal with the ‘tin roof’. Recording ideas does not mean accepting and acknowledging that an idea must be implemented. It is a way to provide assurance and clarity to all the ‘tin roof experts’ out there.

2. Have a process to record ideas, then follow-through. Don’t be that person who records stuff and never investigates/responds. Eat your vegetables, put in a small amount of effort and back up your decision on why you should not do something with as much gusto as you would if you wanted to do something.

3. Ultimately, there are not many new ideas when everyone is focussed on the ‘Tin roof’, use your responses to previous ideas when a concern is recycled by someone else.

Knowing your audience.

1. Half the battle is understanding that your audience are rarely ever going to be as in the detail as you are, nor should they be.

2. Our goal is to understand our audience. Find out what motivates them? How do they prefer to be communicated with? Over time, develop an understanding of how to get your point across. This approach is unique to teams and to individuals. For example:

   1.  Certain leaders in a corporate may listen more if news comes from a particular group/person. Put pride at the door and leverage relationships to communicate if needed.

   2. Certain groups may be fine to speak with at a team level and then issues arise when you speak cross-functionally/at larger town halls etc.

   3. There are always multiple ways to get buy in, communicate with teams and people in ways that matter to them and you will quickly be surprised at how much buy in you can achieve (and how much time you will save by not talking about the tin roof on that dunny.)

Hope you find this useful. Always keen to hear from fellow product people, what are your ‘tin roof’ stories?