How Ikigai And Stoicism Will Make You A Better Product Manager

Discover how ancient philosophy meets Japanese wisdom to transform your product practice. Here's a practical guide for finding meaning in the chaos of product management.

Have you ever found yourself drowning in a sea of roadmap demands, stakeholder pressure, and endless feature requests, wondering if you're even building the right thing? Yup, I've been there. Many days, I've questioned whether all the fires I was putting out were actually moving the needle for customers or just keeping the wheels spinning!

Well I have been putting into practice 2 ancient philosophical currents: Stoicism and Ikigai. What I learned not only my way of creating products, but my approach to my entire career as well.

Without philosophical fluff, I’ll share with you some tips you can apply immediately. 👇

Understanding Ikigai And Stoicism

A Product Manager's Perspective

Before we dive into practical applications, let's quickly establish what these philosophies are about:

👉 Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning "reason for being." It sits at the intersection of:

• What you love

• What you're good at

• What the world needs

• What you can be paid for

👉 Stoicism, is a philosophy of ancient Rome centered on:

• Focusing only on what you can control

• Accepting what you cannot change

• Practicing emotional resilience

• Making decisions based on virtue rather than emotion

At first glance, these might seem like interesting but impractical philosophies. But when applied to product management, they create a powerful tool for decision-making and finding purpose.

💡 Both philosophies share a core principle:

Focus on what matters and what you can control, letting go of the rest.

Purpose As Your North Star ⭐️

Finding Your Product's Ikigai

As Seneca wisely put it,

"No wind favors a ship without direction."

This applies perfectly to product management. How many times have you found yourself building features because competitors have them or because a key stakeholder demanded them?

(Re)defining Your Product’s Ikigai

Here's how to apply Ikigai to find your product's purpose:

1. What your team loves building (passion): What aspects of the product light up your engineers and designers?

2. What your team excels at (expertise): What technical or design capabilities set your team apart?

3. What users genuinely need (market demand): What problems are users explicitly asking you to solve?

4. What creates sustainable value (business viability): What aspects of your product drive revenue or strategic value?

When a feature or initiative sits at the intersection of all four, you've found your product's Ikigai – its reason for being.

Example in action

Stripe's Product Ikigai

1. Passion (What They Love):
The Collison brothers were obsessed with simplifying online payments after experiencing the pain of integrating payment systems firsthand. As John Collison stated:

"We were frustrated with how hard it was to start and scale a business on the internet".

2. Expertise (What They're Good At):
Their deep technical knowledge in APIs and developer tools allowed them to build:

• A seamless integration experience (7 lines of code vs. competitors' 200+)

• Real-time debugging tools for payment flows

• Granular permission systems for enterprise use cases

3. Market Need (What the World Needs):
In 2010, developers spent weeks implementing payment systems. Stripe solved:

• Fragmented global payment protocols

• Opaque fee structures

• Lack of test environments for payment workflows

4. Business Model (What Pays):
Stripe adopted a transactional fee model that:

• Scaled with customer growth

• Aligned incentives (they only made money when merchants succeeded)

• Funded R&D for compliance tools (handling PCI-DSS, GDPR, etc.)

The Stoic Approach to Product Purpose

While Ikigai helps you find direction, Stoicism helps you stay the course amidst chaos. Marcus Aurelius would have made an excellent product manager with advice like:

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

In product terms, this translates to:

Focus on what you can control:

• User research

• Product quality

• Clear communication

• Thoughtful prioritization

Accept what you cannot control:

• Competitor moves

• Market fluctuations

• Some stakeholder opinions

• Perfect information

I've found that combining these approaches creates a powerful decision-making tool. When faced with tough product decisions, I ask:

1. Does this align with our product's vision? —> Ikigai perspective

2. Am I focusing on what I can control? —> Stoic perspective

Going back to Stripe’s example

Stripe’s Stoic Execution

While Ikigai defined Stripe's purpose, Stoic principles shaped their execution:

Focus on Controllables:

• Developer experience: They obsessively improved API documentation while ignoring early criticism about "niche developer focus".

• Compliance infrastructure: Built regulatory tools internally rather than waiting for market solutions.

Accept External Realities:

• Payment regulations: Treated complex global regulations as constraints to engineer around, not existential threats.

• Competitor moves: Maintained focus on core infrastructure while PayPal and others chased consumer-facing features.

Virtue-Driven Decisions:

• Rejected lucrative enterprise contracts that required custom code, preserving product integrity.

• Prioritized long-term platform robustness over short-term revenue from risky merchants.

Core Drivers

Turning Philosophy Into Product Priorities

Let's get way more practical. How do you translate these philosophical concepts into daily product work? I’ll call it "Product Philosophy Canvas", for now. 😁

PRODUCT PHILOSOPHY CANVAS

IKIGAI QUADRANTS           |  STOIC PRINCIPLES
---------------------------|-----------------------------
What we love:              |  What we can control:
[Team passions]            |  [Direct influences]
                           |
What we're good at:        |  What we must accept:
[Technical strengths]      |  [External factors]
                           |
What users need:           |  What virtue requires:
[Validated problems]       |  [Ethical considerations]
                           |
What drives revenue:       |  How we respond:
[Business model elements]  |  [Our chosen actions]

📖 How to use it: Before making major product decisions, fill out this canvas with your team. It forces you to confront trade-offs explicitly and align on what truly matters.

Breaking Down the Drivers 🔻

Both philosophies emphasize core drivers that should guide your actions:

Ikigai drivers:

• Passion (personal enjoyment)

• Expertise (professional excellence)

• Service (meeting needs)

• Value (creating sustainable worth)

Stoic drivers:

• Wisdom (clear judgment)

• Courage (right action despite fear)

• Justice (fairness in relationships)

• Temperance (self-discipline)

☑️ Action item: Take 10 minutes today to audit your product roadmap against these drivers. How many items align with both your Ikigai and Stoic values?

Values Over Vanity Metrics ✨

One of the biggest traps in product management is chasing vanity metrics – numbers that look impressive but don't actually represent value creation.

Stoic philosopher Epictetus advised:

"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens."

In product terms, this means focusing on metrics you can directly influence through product quality and user experience, rather than obsessing over market conditions beyond your control.

Measure success through balance:

• Are users genuinely benefiting from your product? (beyond just usage metrics)

• Is your team energized by the work? (beyond just productivity metrics)

• Is the business sustainably growing? (beyond just short-term revenue)

• Are you leveraging your unique capabilities? (beyond just feature parity)

I have applied it by thinking from a “holistic health metric” for our products:

1. User wellbeing metrics: Do users achieve their goals more effectively? (Not just: do they spend more time in the app?)

2. Team vitality metrics: Is the team learning and growing? (Not just: are they shipping on schedule?)

3. Business sustainability metrics: Are we building lasting value? (Not just: did we hit quarterly targets?)

4. Capability advancement metrics: Are we getting better at our craft? (Not just: did we ship more features?)

💡 Tip: For each traditional metric you track, add a complementary "meaning metric" that measures deeper impact.

The Product Leader's Ikigai

Discovering Your Personal Path

Now, let's get personal. As product leaders, finding our own Ikigai is as important as finding the purpose of our product. So what I've done in the past is answer this simple self-assessment that has helped me and other colleagues find clarity:

THE PRODUCT LEADER'S IKIGAI ASSESSMENT

1. LOVE: What aspects of product management energize you?
   - _________________________________
   - _________________________________

2. SKILL: What are your unique strengths as a product leader?
   - _________________________________
   - _________________________________

3. NEED: What problems in your organization need solving?
   - _________________________________
   - _________________________________

4. VALUE: How do you create measurable impact?
   - _________________________________
   - _________________________________

REFLECTION: Where do you see overlap in all four areas?

This intersection is your "Product Leader Ikigai"

When I completed this exercise, I discovered my own Ikigai was at the intersection of complex problem-solving, cross-functional collaboration, and helping others grow.

💡 This clarity helped me look for opportunities that would fill me with energy rather than drain me. For example, instead of seeing some stakeholder meetings as boring, I shifted my perspective to “how can I help them meet X”.

Final Thoughts

Stoic Wisdom for Product Leaders

What I love about mixing Ikigai and Stoicism is that these ancient wisdoms provide surprisingly concrete advice for modern product challenges.

Alongside this, I've found these Stoic practices invaluable as a product leader:

1. The dichotomy of control: Listing what I can and cannot control about my day. This simple practice has dramatically reduced my anxiety about market conditions, competitor moves, and other externalities. Specially if I have to present something in a meeting.

2. Amor fati (love of fate): Embracing setbacks as learning opportunities has transformed how I handle product failures. Instead of deflecting blame, I now view each misstep as a necessary part of the journey.

For example: This year did not start well for my team, a major feature launch failed in February. Looking back, there are many things that led us to where we are today, but every decision we made to redirect our efforts to the right place made us grow and adapt even more.

This stoic approach turned a potential moral blow into an opportunity for growth.

Quick recap:

• Ikigai helps you find purpose and ensure your product creates meaningful value

• Stoicism helps you maintain focus and emotional resilience amid uncertainty

Together, they transform product management from a reactive scramble into a purposeful practice. 🙏

I've found that leaders and teams who embrace these philosophies experience greater satisfaction and less burnout. They make decisions with clarity and focus on what matters.

What about you? Have you found some of these practices helpful? How do you maintain purpose and resilience in the chaos of product management? Drop your thoughts in the comments! 👇