A Product Manager, often likened to a mini-CEO, operates without official authority over people, resources, or investment. Yet, a skilled PM wields significant influence over major business, organization, and resourcing decisions. For instance, a PM might influence the decision to prioritize a certain feature in the product roadmap, or to allocate resources to a specific project. This unique and challenging role requires not just technical prowess, but also superlative communication and influencing skills to navigate the organization and drive a product to success. Mastering these skills can empower you to lead and shape the direction of your product, instilling a sense of capability and motivation.
Consider this: I spend approximately 50-70% of my time on an average work day in various discussions, presentations, or fire drills. These interactions span across the globe, involving scrum teams, PMs from other products (as I lead cross-product teams), project managers, customers, partners, cloud operations, UX designers, management, sales, and other stakeholders. The intriguing part is that no discussions during a typical day are the same in topic, tone, or texture. This rich diversity of interactions and stakeholders underscores the breadth and depth of a product manager's role, necessitating quick context-switching for every meeting and the need to influence different stakeholders differently.
Communication is definitely not the easiest skill to acquire. It requires continuous practice and learning. Communication has different dimensions, and each dimension is relevant to one or more situations in a PM’s life. I have characterized a few in this communications series in byte-sized packs, emphasizing the value of your ongoing efforts in honing this crucial skill.
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