Communication Skills: Why Product Managers Need Them and How to Improve Them (Series 1; Ep 2)

As a product manager, your success depends on your ability to communicate effectively with various stakeholders, including engineers, designers, marketers, executives, and customers. In today’s post, I’ll explore why communication skills are critical for product managers and provide some tips on how to improve them.

Why Communication Skills Matter for Product Managers: Product managers need strong communication skills for a variety of reasons, including:

• Collaborating with cross-functional teams: As a PM, you’ll need to work closely with teams across the organization, including engineering, design, and marketing. Clear communication is essential for ensuring everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals.

• Defining product requirements: To develop successful products, product managers must be able to clearly articulate product requirements and features to their teams. Poor communication can lead to confusion and delays in the development process.

• Presenting to stakeholders: Product managers often need to present product strategies, roadmaps, and updates to executives and other stakeholders. Effective communication is critical for gaining buy-in and support for your product vision.

Tips for Improving Communication Skills as a product manager:

• Practice active listening: Listening is an important part of effective communication. Practice active listening by paying attention to what others are saying, asking clarifying questions, and summarizing what you’ve heard. You can practice this by journaling, after every important discussion with a friend or family member, write down everything discussed and make it a story. Because you have to write it out you will pay more attention.
• Be clear and concise: Avoid using jargon or overly complex language. Instead, focus on communicating your ideas clearly and concisely. Not everyone is good with vocabulary, engineers don’t care about grammars they just want to code. Avoid big vocabs it will destroy your team meetings.
• Adapt your communication style: Different stakeholders may have different communication preferences. Be adaptable and tailor your communication style to fit the needs of your audience. Some people are good with emails and some with calls while others physical meetings, you.
• Get feedback: Ask for feedback from your team and other stakeholders on your communication style. Use this feedback to identify areas for improvement. So many people are afraid of feedbacks because they don’t like to hear bad news lol, but there is no one out there that is perfect in every area. Take that feedback like an appraisal and get better.

To learn more about communication skills for product managers, check out these resources:

• “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. This book provides tips on how to have difficult conversations and communicate effectively in high-stress situations.
• “The Art of Conscious Coversation” by Chuck Wisner. Below is just some pictorial excerpt from the book.

• “The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback” by Dan Olsen. This book includes a chapter on effective communication for product managers.
• Toastmasters International. Toastmasters is a nonprofit organization that helps people improve their public speaking and communication skills through a supportive network of clubs and events.

I hope these tips help you improve your communication skills as a product manager. Stay tuned for more insights on product management throughout the week! Tomorrow I will be sharing my story of a product that has been successful and explain how product management played a key role in its success. Here is Series 1; Ep 1)