Episode 10: Dear Melissa - Answering Questions About Communicating Up
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about how to communicate difficult things like a lack of product-oriented focus, the importance of data, and the positive side of killing products.
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Q: Have you come across situations in your career as a product manager where you were under the authority of people with no background in product management? How would you recommend I bring my concern about this to my leadership without coming across as arrogant? [1:08]
A: I’ve come across this in my career so many times. I actually find it insulting [to product management teams] when organizations take any senior leader and assign them as leaders of product management. I think it stems from a desire to not want to lay off a huge amount of people, as well as a lack of understanding that product management is a skill set. Just because you're a fantastic leader doesn't mean you'll be a great product leader. [Bringing up your concerns] without sounding arrogant is going to be hard, but I think one of the tactics that you could do is start to ask leadership for the things that you need. Start to ask them the questions that you would expect them to fulfill, and if you're asking all these questions and your product leaders are not able to answer them they'll start to look for answers. [1:59]
Q: My organization struggles to use data effectively. What are some ways to convey the importance of data to leadership? And what are some achievable milestones that can be acquired to prove the value of investing in data? [9:14]
A: The biggest thing is you're communicating why you need data to leadership as it helps you, but not that it helps leadership. Leaders want to know what’s going on and they want to be able to make decisions. You have to lead with how the data you need to make product decisions bubbles up into helping leadership make strategic decisions, because they're all connected at the end of the day. For achievable milestones, think about what you can get data in quickly. For example, take a product or project the company is really passionate about and measure usage or metrics, and relay it in a way that leads back to leadership strategy. [10:02]
Q: How can I reframe the decision to kill products so that everyone can understand them? [13:32]
A: You can start to quantify the losses that were being accumulated because of the costs of facilitating the products and the lack of use from the customers. That’s your story, “ by killing this product we saved the company xyz money. So we got rid of it and now we can start working on this other stuff that's gonna provide immense value.” Also, think about the audience you’re talking to, what they care about, and how this decision helps them. [13:52]
Resources
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