Product Management In 5 minutes (Part 8)

Communication.

Communication is very key in every aspect of any functional organization and it happens in a lot of different channels like meetings(formal & informal), conference calls, emails, and interviews to mention a few which is why as product managers communication skills is by far the most important skill needed because we are the communication hub in whichever industry we find ourselves.

One must learn the art of communicating differently with different types of people formally or informally, and as product managers engineers, designers, executives, and most importantly the clients revolve around us mostly which is why in this article we would learn very important things to take note of when conversing with them.

Engineers

They pay attention to every aspect of things they are lovers of detail so when working with them it is important to be clear and detailed when addressing them or sending them feature specifications so as to avoid tech debt.

We should ensure to never treat engineers like an agency, so we must provide them the opportunity to give feedback, opinions, and ideas that can improve the product either at a formal or informal gathering this is healthy for the product and the team as a whole.

When pitching, we should ensure to have a good idea of where the feature will go in the future. One should try to do the essential technical works upfront on things like checking commit logs before asking the engineers this would increase the level of respect on both parties and would make the engineers have a sense of not belonging.

And most importantly if anything goes wrong it is always the product manager's fault, not theirs.

Designers

These are very creative sets of humans, so as to product managers we must ensure to provide them ample opportunities to stretch the limits of their imagination and allow them to give feedback and opinion on the core product idea rather than just the designs, this way we would produce a very healthy product revenue-wise.

Also, ensure not to treat designers like an agency as well because eighty percent of the time designers are always going to know much more about user interactions than product managers, one should provide them with data, show them the user feedbacks one must also really be clear about any limitations.

Don’t ever tell the designers what to do because as product managers we are responsible for the what and why, but never the how so we need to ensure to only highlight our observations in broad terms and not tell them what to do.

Always inform them about the user problems first before stating the solutions.

Executives and Stakeholders

Being Brief, that’s the principal rule of communicating with executives, why?

Because they are the busiest people at the establishment, in order to prove to them that we value their time as product managers we should only send them compact, well-detailed, and brief reports or emails.

And most importantly always communicate with them in their style and address them in terms of business effect.

Clients, Customers OR Users

These are the most important people in the product lifecycle and there are a thousand and one reasons why we should and would engage with them as product managers.

Now there is four-phase of communication(can either be an email or interview setting) advised when interacting with clients, we have; Exploratory phase, Validation phase, Satisfaction oriented phase and the Efficiency phase.

Exploratory phase
At this phase, one needs to allow them to do the talking because the goal here is to get them to open up, and let them in their own words describe the problem they have and what they think about the proposed solution, product, or feature. so as product managers our duty is to listen to them at this stage.

Questions to be asked at this point should be open-ended.

Validation phase
Here we test out product theories, this is a very important phase of the interaction to ensure the product is always market fit, it needs to be treated as a science project because it is hypersensitive to bias.

So when interacting with them do not introduce the idea, theory, feature, or product first, instead build a discussion around that solution, and by the time you get to introduce the solution do not hype, exaggerate or defend it so as to get the most honest feedback from them.

Questions at this point should be narrowed down to the product.

Satisfaction oriented phase
At this point, the goal is to dig out which aspect of the product are they mostly satisfied with, and why.

Questions at this point should be built around their favorite aspect or feature of the product.

Efficiency phase
Here the goal is to figure out how exactly the product ingrains into the life of the customer and as a function of that how can the product be improved so as to better serve its purpose.

And from this contextual learning, one can figure out what part of the product serves the customer well, which part is unnecessary or inefficient, and which is actually degrading from the actual purpose of the product.

Questions at this point should be about the aspect of feature of the product they are not comfortable with.

Conclusion

Six different audiences, Six different slide decks. Births the right Product. — Yasir Gaji

Tech debt is a term used to describe something in technology or code that needs to be taken care of later on due to not doing something correctly or skipping an important process of development.

Ensure that the various aspect of the product team understands that you know the user base, technology, and business. Ensure to always update the product team about the product development frequently.

Avoid infringing the clients' ability to think freely even if it is in a subtle manner so as to not ruin the feedback

I expect questions for clarification. In the next part, we would learn about the two major types of product managers.