Effective Product Manager – Communication

For those of you who are currently product managers and looking to advance your career, I’m sure this is one of the top questions you have daily in your head: “how can I be more effective as a product manager?” How do I know? Because I’m one of you. As a product manager, I always strive for being more effective in my job everyday. Even before I transitioned into the product role, I was always thinking about a similar question: “what does it take to be an effective product manager (and how can I prove I can be one)?”

So I’m starting a new series of posts dedicated to sharing my perspectives on how to be an effective product manager.

I know. It’s vague. And we probably all know that the product management effectiveness means so many different things. That’s why I’m going to break it down into the core competencies of a product manager, and talk about one skill in one post at a time.

I’ll start from arguably THE most important and fundamental skill of all: communication. Lets talk about effective communication.

What Do I Know About Communication?

No, I’m not a communication guru. Pretty far from it. The truth is, I used to struggle a lot about communication by all measures (not even by PM standard). And to this date, I’m always working on getting better everyday. Over the last decade or so in my career, I did learn a thing or two about communication. On the job, from my colleagues, reading books, through trial and error, and recovering from terrible mistakes and failures. I know much better now what works well for me, and I believe some principles apply equally to you as well regardless your background and personality.

Effective Communication

Starting from some basics.

Behind every communication, there is a goal to accomplish. You want to convince a colleague about an idea of yours, align with other teams about a shared OKR, or simply, let your significant other know how much you love with her/him. An effective communication is to accomplish the goal effectively, via the communication vehicles that are chosen. Verbal, written, visual, or a combination.

You’d always have other people to communicate with, excluding your own self-talk. This might sound obvious, but you have no idea how often this got forgotten in the communication. How can I convince them? How can I get my points across? How can I get what I want. When it’s all about I, I, I, the “communication” easily fall apart.

So here we go with the very first two principles:

• [Principle #1] Be crisply clear about the goals behind every communication
• [Principle #2] Know and care about the people you communicate with

Verbal Communication

Now, let’s talk specifically about verbal communication. Here I want to focus more on live, inter-personal verbal conversations, and less about presentation which is usually more one-sided, and probably deserves a dedicated topic of its own.

One on one’s, group meeting, strategy review, etc. or even job interviews are all live verbal communications. Being “live” is what’s unique. In that, as much as you can prepare in advance (which you should), you can never fully predict what’s going to come up, how others will react/respond, and keep everything under your total control. The following have helped me be more effective in verbal communications:

[Principle #3] Always start your conversations with a “clean slate” mindset

Yes, you should prepare ahead of the conversations and know your goals and audience. But once the conversation actually starts, throw away any preconception about how you “think” the conversation should go, and be fully present and open minded. It’s precisely because other other people are unpredictable, and you cannot control what they will think and say. The best strategy would be to give in to what actually happens live, and manage the conversation accordingly.

[Principle #4] Listen well

So you cannot predict about the others. The second best thing you can do is to pay attention to them and what they say. Listen attentively before you speak, seek to understand as the first priority in the conversation. The thing is, you never have to predict again, if you can just get what you need live, by listening incredibly well.

[Principle #5] Structure, structure, structure

No, you don’t necessarily speak in bullets, even with your friends, wife, husband, or kids. You might do some of these in the business context, but even in business it’s not exactly what I meant. Once you understand the other persons, you should first structure what you just learned in your head and synthesize. It doesn’t have to take minute long awkward silence before you speak again. The key is not to rush into responding or even fill the air before your head is clear what to say next based on what you just learned. It does take practice to organize your thoughts on the fly and do so efficiently, but a short pause for it is worth it and the other person wouldn’t mind.

Of course, once your head is clear, speak concisely and orderly. Sometimes you would go by the bullets (e.g. “Here’s what I think: A…B…..”), other times it simply means statements that are clear enough for your audience to effortlessly understand.

Written Communication

Every single day, we write countless emails or text messages. As product managers, we write all kinds of documents: the vision and strategy 1 pager, the PRDs, the status updates, the release notes etc. All of these are different forms of written communication, and that’s why it’s important to be highly effective in it.

What’s different about written communication comparing with verbal, is that it’s asynchronous. You get the time (if you take it) to think about it, you can proof read before you send, and the responses from your audience is not instantaneous. Is it easier then? Well, not necessarily.

First, because it’s not a live exchange, you don’t get instant feedback, and you’d need to be extra thoughtful about providing a package with just right amount of information targeting for specific audience. E.g. Any helpful context, the key actions you want your readers to take, and how to organize all these information. Second, there are probably even more unknown variables in your reader’s context that might impact how they take in your information. E.g. they might have overflowing inboxes, are reading your email while rushing to pick up their kids, or they’re distracted by something else. This requires you to be more precise in how you communicate. Lastly, your audience’s expectation could also be higher. They know you take the time to write it up, and they expect a complete and organized communication to make them feel the reading time is well spent.

So what have helped me in written communications?

[Principle #6] Structure, structure, structure

Wait, you’re repeating it! Yes, and intentionally. This applies to written communication too, and with a twist. Use the asynchronous nature to your advantage. Always create a structure first before even writing a single word (vs just getting started and figure your way out) There are a number of frameworks out there, and my personal favorite is The Pyramid Principle (a timeless book by a former long time Mckinsey consultant, HIGHLY recommended). TL;DR: Organize your information into a pyramid structure and start your communication from the top (high level) down (next level of details).

At the minimum, have a clean sectioning structure and ensure you set the right context, describing your key points itemized and concisely, and be crisp about key information and actions you want the audience to take away and make sure these are not hidden in your paragraphs.

[Principle #7] Use plain English

Sometimes it’s tempting to differentiate your writing with well crafted and unique words, phrases, and sentences. Resist it. Use the simple words, common phrases, and concise and easily understood sentences to get your points across. Your readers don’t care about how different you are. They care about what you want to say.

You would think that this only applies to business writing. Not true. Just listen to Stephen King, one of the best fiction writers of all time, shares his wisdom in his short and sweet book “On Writing“. Hint: he suggests the same thing.

[Principle #8] Proof read (in reader’s shoes)

Quite frankly, I’m guilty of not doing this all the time. But when I did it, it worked great. It’s actually less about catching spelling or grammar errors (though it’s good too), but more about how the readers would feel. With the knowledge about your readers and any context of theirs you can anticipate, read your own writing like a reader and see if this email, memo, document, article etc. is clear enough for them to effectively get your points and serve what you’d like to accomplish.

You can never be 100% accurate. But think like a reader will help you get out of your blind spot and make some good improvements before you hit send.

Summary

One more time, here are the 8 principles I learned:

• [Principle #1] Be crisply clear about the goals behind every communication
• [Principle #2] Know and care about the people you communicate with
• [Principle #3] Always start your conversations with a “clean slate” mindset
• [Principle #4] Listen well
• [Principle #5] Structure, structure, structure (in verbal)
• [Principle #6] Structure, structure, structure (in writing)
• [Principle #7] Use plain English
• [Principle #8] Proof read (in reader’s shoes)

These work great for me. And like I said, I’m still learning and striving for getting better in communication everyday. What works for you? Share with us, comment below!

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