How hard should we focus on communication improvement for Product Management?

5 months ago
17 February 2022
1 reply
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jetervaz
Questioner
1 reply

One thing I tell Product Managers working under my leadership is that 90% (or more) of the job is about communication. This is not something that I've invented, of course, we have all heard and read about this many times. But how hard do we focus on communication improvement for our Product work? Or do we focus on it at all? Is there any time where we are focused thinking about how to improve communication with our teams?

I've been thinking about it recently, and we do have a lot of things one needs to learn when starting to work as a Product Manager, but do we really emphasize how important it is to have good communication, ability to build dialogue between different teams, manage a lot of information and keep everyone with the right context?

A lot of the tools and frameworks we have are meant to help us with communication. I wonder if sometimes if we don't end up focusing more on the tools and frameworks other than the big problem which is plain and simple communication.

What do you think?

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Userlevel 7

+12

scott.baldwin
Community Lead
745 replies
5 months ago
19 February 2022

💯agree that communication skills are often overlooked. While I don’t feel it’s in the same category as tools and frameworks, it’s not uncommon for those tools and frameworks become shortcuts or crutches for many who can’t communicate well. As a critical soft skill, communication is pretty much at the foundation of any successful workplace. Whether verbal or non-verbal, the best teams do this well.

Curious as to what prompted this topic for you? Is it a pattern you’re seeing as under valued? Not taught? Is this something that would be helpful for you and/or your team to develop further?