The Art of Patience in Digital and Product Management

Published 2014-07-15 · Updated 2026-06-23 · By Alan Wizemann

Topics: Board/Advisory, Product Strategy & Development, Consumer Goods, Enterprise, Media, Retail, Startup

If there is one thing my experience at Target taught me, it is patience. Honestly it is a trait that I never really possessed, and I can also see that I passed it on to my two-year old daughter. In my work, throughout my career, I have had to push, and where I couldn't push I had to do. It is the reason I studied design for years, worked odd jobs learning about different trades that I would need to use (printing, photography, networking, computer repair) and taught myself how to program. Although it becomes easier to delegate and trust others as you scale up a startup, I wasn't used to the scale of a company like Target. In the early days when I was consulting for them, I was able to push pretty hard on decisions, actions and outcomes that I wanted, with little to no pushback. Later, after I joined to become an official vice president, I had to learn how to let some things simply play out, as they were part of a larger initiative or simply out of my control.

It wasn't easy at all, because part of the traits of an entrepreneur can be a bit of an "I can do it all" ego – the kind that you constantly have to fight. After I was able to settle into the role and define what my teams were responsible for, I quickly saw gaps with our partner teams and processes that I simply had to ignore. They were in someone else's capable hands and they worked at a much different pace from what I was used to. What finally shook out was what ultimately was best for the team and products at a pace that was good for the company, something much slower than I was used to.

I learned that sometimes, because of the delays, better decisions and outcomes were possible, because there was simply more time to weigh the decision criteria. Other times, things dragged out and caused tension with the team and partners. Part of the patience that I feel I learned in my almost 3 years there is when to use it, how to leverage it, and when to spot issues from its overuse.