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Effective communication program

A product manager (PM) should be able to interpret, translate, and disintegrate complex concepts into something that the audience can easily understand (they should be multilingual). That is a primary skill that all PMs should have at the core of their daily operations because this is the kind of communication that enables them to work through the organization and influence the facilitation of a product (Gwynn, 2019). In any effective communication program, the key people to interact with are these four categories: top management, colleagues, diverse stakeholders, and consumers. Therefore for the development of an effective program of communication that is cooperative as well (for the clap switch), PM will have to find a way to communicate with these relevant stakeholders.

Communicating with the top management

At this level of communication, the message is a very serious and high profile, and therefore, PM for the clap switch should find the best way to confidently and affirmatively break down his message to the top managers. In doing this, PM will have some Dos and Dons.

The Dos; in the category, the first thing to do is to ensure the presentation and other documents reach them before the actual meeting, also important is making some pre-printed materials for them to go through in the course of the meeting quickly. Secondly, PM should be well conversant with the information about the product and be sure to support your facts with data and videos (Harrison, 2019). This will show that PM had thought through the entire process and is aware of the possible outcomes. Thirdly, PM should be categorical about the achievement of the goals and highlight from what perspective is their support needed. Fourthly, ensure to fulfill the follow-up requests and then provide a comprehensive update after that meeting.

The Don’ts; the first thing is giving too much information to the audience, instead focus on the important facts that can help them in making decisions. Therefore, during the preparation, ensure that your slide only contains the links of the product to their objectives of the business. Secondly, giving surprises to your audience with bad news as this would attract lots of questions. Thirdly, wasting audience time especially due to unpreparedness, never take their time for granted and therefore should adequately prepare. And finally, ignoring the dynamism presented in the room. Instead, be sure to understand the reaction of the audience and adjust accordingly.

Communicating with your team

This category contains people PM meets, interacts with, takes lunch, and at least once a week meets officially to discuss the status and solve issues. However, when the achievement of the agreed goals fails, PM needs to understand how he is going to communicate with colleagues

The Dos; the first thing is to harmonize the standups by allowing everybody to manage the project as well as the non-engineers of the product. The second thing is regularly reviewing the strategy and then be sure to give reasons for the contextual changes as well as an update on the data as the business progresses. Thirdly, make sure to take records on key decisions and send them to the team because it is the responsibility of the PM to do that. The fourth thing is to ensure that no blockers are available by being proactive in the facilitation of communication. If nobody understands a concept, then bring them together and have a discussion with them and then explain the way forward. Finally, ensuring colleagues’ motivation, and this can be done by having meetings that appreciate their substantial contributions to the product’s progress.

The Don’ts; the very first thing is making decisions in isolation without engaging the others. This makes teammates lose the sense of ownership in the product, and therefore, the decisions are likely to bring a ripple effect. Instead, constantly update them on the actions taken. Secondly, it is sending a request to an assignee using a tool for project management without prior notice. The assignee may consider this very rude, and therefore, it is good to make prior communications to make the request polite (Harrison, 2019). The third aspect is regarding the product engineers as subordinates as opposed to partners. The PM should instead regard these people as potential partners and even seek their opinions in the decision-making process. Finally, the ignoring to give updates to the colleagues (on the changes on product specifics) after a meeting with the top management. The PM should ensure the team gets updates and reason for the changes in the specifications hence bringing alignment to the process.

Communicating with stakeholders

Stakeholders are very vital in the lifecycle of the development of a product, and they include both internal teams (the legal and the finance) as well as the external teams (the partners of the brand) (Ragini, 2019). Some of the stakeholders usually have their needs changing with time, and therefore, this puts PM at a position of being able to negotiate and minimize the changes. After the changes have been negotiated, PM should find a way to take the information to the engineers and designers to act on the product.

The Dos; the first thing is to be able to show a good understanding of their roles and field as well as showing empathy to them. Secondly, PM should be able to predict the changing dynamics of various discussions and, as such, apply the relevant formats to different people and at the right times (Gwynn, 2019). Due to the varying roles, PM has the task of accordingly adjusting the meetings. Thirdly, whenever the time is right, PM should give leverage to teammates. For instance, the engineers should be invited to a meeting to talk about the impacts of change on the product. The fourth aspect is to provide constant enlightenment to the stakeholders who often are unaware of their effects on the development process. Another crucial thing is ensuring to have good relationships beyond the work environments (meetings) as this would help in creating a good rapport between them. Lastly, PM should ensure the utmost transparency across the organization by making available all the updates on the product.

The Don’ts, the very first step, is overlooking the importance of involving the stakeholders at appropriate stages. The PM should know different investments by each stakeholder and, as such, make a list of all the people to be included before a critical decision is made. Secondly, prompting the stakeholders into thinking their opinions were overlooked, and therefore the briefed on the next steps. Ensure that every step is well explained to them even if it was not their idea. The third thing is letting it off your mind that stakeholders are not conversant with the decisions making and priorities setting (Ragini, 2019). The PM should never assume and instead should constantly teach the stakeholders. Fourthly, is letting the stakeholders have different understandings of decisions and next actions at the end of a meeting. Make it a necessity at the end of every meeting to inform the stakeholders of the conclusions and ensure they are in agreement. Lastly, overlooking the need to enlighten the stakeholder on specified deadlines and tradeoffs as well. The PM should never wait to be asked; instead, they should provide this information and also update the stakeholders on any changes regarding timelines.

Communicating with customers

Another critical aspect of communication involves the customers; this involves understanding their needs in your company. The PM should also ensure they identify gaps existing in the market and strive to fill them, and more importantly, PM should ensure the product they are proposing will have the most impact for the customers (Gwynn, 2019).

The Dos; PM should ensure they understand the problem of users and figure out the “why “part later. To achieve this, PM needs to understand the drivers of user-problems. Secondly, PM should conduct goal-oriented research to establish what is most valuable to customers in terms of benefits, and these results should be relayed to the marketing team and other important segments. Thirdly, PM should consider the copy of the email as part of experiencing the product since the customers have it as the first point of touch. Finally, PM should have empathy for their customers. Reading the feedback and studies of users enables the PM to have knowledge of the needs of their customers as well as their behavior.

The Don’ts; the very first thing is leaving the messaging part of a product until the near dates to launching. The PM should have done at the beginning of the product design since it can be very difficult as the product design (Ragini, 2019). Secondly, is making an assumption that the position of a product to customers will happen automatically with marketing. The PM should instead be actively involved in the learning and development of a prototype. The third thing is leaving in the dark the team responsible for the success of the customers during the launch of the product. The PM should ensure they are informed to give them a good standpoint when presenting it to the customers. Lastly, it is ruling out the need to have a rollout just because the product is an internal issue. The PM should not assume anything and should instead train internal users because they are also actual users.

Conclusion

To conclude, a product manager needs to be well prepared, diligent, cautious, conversant, and well versed with the perspectives of the product and be able to engage all the parties involved with utmost regard possible systematically. A PM should understand that all the people involved in the process are important stakeholders and should be engaged in every aspect to ensure there is no fear of subordination. It is also very important for the PM to observe due diligence, comprehensive evaluation of all possible solutions to the problems, and a layout of the decision making to explain the course of development. Finally, the most important of all to know is your target audience (stakeholders, teammates, customers) and the best way to treat them since they are very integral to the process.

References

Gwynn, B. (2019). Getting to Effective Stakeholder Communication. Retrieved 9 November 2019, from https://medium.com/the-product-program/getting-to-effective-stakeholder-communication-d3ecd3d6eda

Harrison, K. (2019). Nine top ways to develop an annual communication plan | Cutting Edge PR Insights: Boost Your Career. Retrieved 9 November 2019, from https://cuttingedgepr.com/free-articles/nine-top-ways-to-develop-an-annual-communication-plan/

Ragini. (2019). Marketing Communication: Meaning, Purpose, Role, Process, and Strategies. Retrieved 9 November 2019, from http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/marketing-2/marketing-communication-meaning-purpose-role-process-and-strategies/31623