Can product management tackle wicked problems?
The search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy is bound to fail, because of the nature of these problems. They are “wicked” problems, whereas science has developed to deal with “tame” problems.
Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber
Product management, at least as typically practiced, uses the scientific method as the basis for answering questions and establishing new knowledge.
Rittel and Webber claimed that science cannot deal with wicked problems.
So, can product management tackle wicked problems?
Not the tactical product management as we usually think of it, and not even where product management is able to act strategically, but perhaps where product management can effect systems change.
Product management that seeks certainty will never tackle wicked problems. But product management that embraces uncertainty, and works with complexity, maybe that can.