Communication: A Superpower of a Product Manager
The most effective communicators are not born, they are made. The right combination of practice, experience, and conditioning can help improve your communication skills. Communication — both oral and written is a crucial skill for Product Managers as your primary responsibility is to communicate the product vision to all stakeholders. There will be a lot of time spent internally talking to the development teams, design teams, marketing teams, and sales teams. Also, externally while speaking with customers, gathering their feedback, understanding their pain points, and conducting market research.
Communicating with stakeholders is a Product Manager’s daily task to ensure that the product is solving the right problem and correctly. Developing this skill requires a deep understanding of the goals and motivations of the different stakeholders. Communication is all about being able to converse in the target audience’s language, whether it’s a marketing creative, an engineer, a CEO or a customer.
The best ideas don’t need to be yours. You should foster a creative and collaborative environment to identify ideas that will contribute to your product’s goals. It will be important to get your team’s buy-in once you’ve decided what to build next. The product team will never do it right if they don’t understand what they are building and why. From product team’s perspective, it is your duty to ensure that your team understands what they are developing as well as why they are doing so. Priorities and requirements need to be clearly defined. The more comprehensive but straightforward specification you create ( eg. User stories), the better chance the engineer has of delivering on time, which allows the team to build the product as planned.
It is essential to be authentic and natural when interacting with executives. Executives are looking for more than just facts. It is imperative that the evidence be delivered with conviction and truth, as they would need to be updated with the product’s progress. The importance of communication here cannot be overstated. Effective communication allows the management to make appropriate decisions based on a full understanding of the product.
It’s equally crucial for success to communicate with people outside of the product team, such as marketing, sales, and even customers. Make sure that your message is clear. It is important you speak in simple, non-technical terms. It can be difficult to understand when you use words that are technical.
Communication Principles
Let’s examine a few principles that contribute to effective communication.
Medium : It is possible to be confused by the mediums we use to communicate. There can be flaws in language. While technology has bridged gaps, it has also created complications.
Tip — It is critical to understand that some media remove meaning. The importance of facial expressions and gestures in communication cannot be overstated. In a medium like a phone call, this is stripped out, reducing meaning. Whenever possible, prioritize face-to-face communication.
Tip — Language is unrefined and unpredictable. “Peace & Love” can mean different things to certain individuals. If each member of the product team has different definitions of “success”, you can find that you are all working towards varying goals.
Be Attentive : Have you ever had a conversation with someone who wasn’t paying attention to you because they were preoccupied with something else? That is known as being inattentive. It is a sign of poor communication. Consequently, pay attention to how you communicate.
Tip — Maintaining eye contact throughout conversations and meetings will help you communicate more effectively. To show that you are paying attention in a conversation, nod firmly.
Go straight to the point : Keep the significance of communication in mind by being clear and precise. Regardless of whether you prefer oral or written communication.
Tip — To make your point, don’t talk for long. Be concise and to the point, respect everyone’s time, and balance conciseness with a human touch.
Context : Context cannot be ignored. It’s critical to be aware of how everyone is feeling. Consider how your words might convey meaning that wasn’t intended.
Tip — Take account every possible interpretation. Take a moment to consider how your words might be interpreted before speaking, and then observe how your audience responds. Be prepared to elaborate if you believe you have been misunderstood.
Tip — Think about how you get along with the person you’re talking to. A straightforward inquiry like, “How’s the task going?” may appear encouraging, neutral, or menacing depending on various background variables at work.
Interpersonal skills : Interpersonal communication skills will benefit you both professionally and personally. You will require it on a daily basis. It incorporates emotional intelligence skills, or the ability to understand your own and others’ emotions.
Tip — Your ability to communicate more effectively can be improved by having high self-esteem and confidence. Positive thinking contributes to effectiveness.
Reciprocity : All effective communication involves two or more parties exchanging information back and forth. Make sure the conversation flows round the group.
Tip — “Let me confirm what you mean to make sure I understand.” Saying this is particularly helpful when talking with someone in a field you don’t understand, such as a developer explaining a technical flow.
Tip — Have a one-on-one conversation. During private conversations, information flows freely. Meeting face-to-face without the social pressure will allow people to communicate directly.
These tips can help you communicate more effectively, which will make it easier for you to carry out the essential duties of Product Management.
Benefits of Effective Communication
Now, looking at some of the wins from effective communication:
- Employee engagement is increased via effective communication.
- Creates a safe environment in which people can think creatively.
- Encourages a more efficient and talented team.
- Increases the team’s motivation to collaborate toward a common goal.
- Helps clear concerns, ambiguities, and misunderstandings.
The daily duties of a Product Manager center on communication. Therefore, effective communication skills are essential.
People frequently need to hear a message several times, but not always in the same way, for it to stick. In order to make the message clear, product managers may need to convey the same message through regular updates, via communication channels, presentations, visuals, analysis, customer quotations, a vision statement, and prototyping.
If you are skilled at communication, you will also acquire other soft skills. It’s crucial to communicate with empathy and trust. The product team must have faith in your objective and understand the reason for everything.
As a Product Manager, you continuously encounter new circumstances and learn from them. Over time, you start to detect patterns that help you know how to respond. However, each event is distinct in its own way. You should never stop improving on your communication skills.
