No one wants to work with a product manager that others feel is like talking to a wall.
Your experience as a product manager is directly corelated to your ability to tell a story and influence others without having authority over them. Over the past 10+ years I’ve been a product manager, I’ve seen even the best of ideas crash and burn because they weren’t communicated clearly to the people they involve, resulting in both stakeholders not buying into the idea and customers not seeing the value being offered.
Why does this happen?
Sometimes, it comes from the speaker assuming people are clear on what’s being said instead of confirming it. Just because you said it out loud doesn’t mean everyone who heard you understood you.
Other times, and this is one of the most common issues, the idea is being communicated in terms of its features instead of its outcomes. People don’t specifically care about the “how” at this point. What they do care about is its impact, e.g. the “why” it matters.
It could also stem from the speaker not understanding their audience. Everyone has different interests and learning styles. That being said, engineers, marketing, design, etc. all need different levels of detail. For instance, marketing cares more about the “why” and “impact” (since they’re the ones that are going to make sure your offering is positioned in front of the right market segments), but engineering cares more about the “how”.
Quick side note: That last statement isn’t saying engineering doesn’t care about the “why.” Instead, it’s saying that the “why” shouldn’t be a significant part of your conversation with them about your idea.
That being said, what I recommend to the people I help in this regard is to ask yourself: “so what?”
So you told audience X about Y idea. So what?
How does it impact them?
What do they (really) need to know?
Would the future be any different if they didn’t know X? (This one’s a favorite of mine; oversharing details is a really easy way to lose your audience.)
If you make a habit asking “so what” with your communication to others, I guarantee you’ll build a foundation to becoming a better communicator to whomever you talk to in the future.
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