What Napoleon Taught Me About Product

At times I tend to fixate on certain subjects of interest. Recently, the inner history buff did a deep-dive on Napoleon, the French military and political leader in the 19th century, not the famous dancer of the 21st century. I was genuinely intrigued by some of patterns with Napoleon's approach and how they mirror product thinking.

Napoleon is hailed as one of the most successful military commanders in history, he fought 60 battles, lost only seven, and most losses were towards the end of his tenure. His success is largely attributed to his fighting forces speed and adaptability, not fighting skills or perfect strategy. He focused his conventional units on being able to react and move rapidly against an opposing force. Allowing him to reposition, flank, and force opponents into undesirable positions. Sidenote: Modern combat pilots use similar thinking patterns in dogfights (thinking does not have to be slow) with the OODA loop (Observe Orient Decide Act).

This is not to say the fighting skills, equipment, and logistics of Napoleon's forces were not important, quite the contrary. These were the barrier to entry of any good fighting force, something to continually perfect.. These were the basics that Napoleon was able to build off of.

Product is similar. The processes, tactics, and tooling are foundational to winning at scale. Yet the ability to rapidly deliver value to the customer and react to the market is the difference between average and outstanding. There are a couple specific points to Napoleon's success that correlate with product:

• Scouting: Napoleon was affectionately called "little corporal" because he would wear a corporal's uniform in order to get close to the front-line himself to observe the enemy encampment and identify potential line breaks. He would then take the high ground to make decisions against the larger enemy movements in relation to what he observed. Scouts would continue to feed him information to build off his original analysis. Similarly, in product there needs to be a clear understanding at all levels of the market, customer, and opportunities. A product leader must be able to expertly zoom in to understand the customer context but rapidly zoom out to shape out those insights fit into the bigger market and build a surrounding strategy.

• Light Infantry: Napoleon utilized light infantry, called Voltigeurs (a whole essay could be devoted to the iteration and adaptation of this force) to massive success. These units were trained to quickly attack, reposition, and engage without the constraints of traditional forces. They were generally not represented in traditional war-plans, but were expected to adapt and evolve as the battle waged. They were given lighter rifles, lighter rucksacks, and trained how to move quickly under cover. Product teams similarly should be capable of learning rapidly, quickly delivering value, and adapting to evolving opportunities. They should be supported and coached (back to the processes and tactics) with the right context but given leeway to find the best solutions.

• Learning: Napoleon understood the value of continued learning and discovery. He is well known for instating formal education systems during his rule but even more so learning from countries he occupied. One such example was during the Egypt and Syrian campaign, where he brought an army of scholars, scientists, and historians to study and learn. The studies that were conducted laid the foundation for modern Egyptology and lead to the discovery of the Rosetta stone. In a similar light, good product organizations must be setup to continuously learn, not only from successes but also failures. There must be an open promotion of learning, experimenting, and feeding the findings to the larger organization. Good teams use slack time to learn and grow.

There is more that could be written about Napoleon, such as his iterative approach to the French military units mentioned above, but I think the three points above stood the clearest to me in correlation to product. We often turn to stale books or dry tasteless blogs for insights on how to improve the craft, but I have benefited by turning to the annals of history far more.