One of the many incidents where Sherlock Holmes showcases his keen attention to detail and consequent deductions is the curious incident of the dog at the night time. Sherlock deduces that the intruder must have been someone familiar after recollecting that nobody heard the dog bark when the intruder made his way in. If the intruder had been a stranger, then the dog must have barked.

Spotting such things that should have happened but didn't tells us a lot about what could have actually happened.

I had my own small incident like that earlier today.

I had sent out an important mail yesterday. However, I remembered today evening that I still hadn't received a response. This was very unusual as I had expected a near immediate response. So, when I looked in my sent folder, I was alarmed to find that I had missed hitting the send button and that my mail was still sitting in the drafts folder. When I corrected my error and hit send, I received my near immediate response.

As product managers, while we ship products, we usually only look out for changes in metrics. But we often fail to notice a lack of movement that can often tell us a story that we aren't seeing.

Keep an eye out for the things that should have been. Pay attention to the dog that should have barked.