Overview
The Magic Wand Question is a goal-setting technique that asks — “if you had a magic wand right now and could make X happen to unlock success/growth/scale, what would it be?”
Then, spend 90% of your time doing that one thing (X) until you see success or prove that it’s not going to work.
Product managers can use this technique to assess the realm of realistic “dreams,” whether it’s a stage of product, a skill, or particular feature to develop.
However, the flaw with the magic wand is the assumption that all else falls in place should this one item be fixed.
Therefore, don’t use it to identify a surface-level issue (e.g. likes on social media). Instead, let the underlying vision serve as a touchstone (like in Airbnb’s Elastic Teams) and pivot when needed.
