Product Managers as storytellers

Google Product Manager for Duo, Amit Jaiswal does a walkthrough of the importance of storytelling skills in Product Management. 

As we’ve discussed elsewhere with Atlassian’s PM Lead –  Product Managers have many touch points with company and product stakeholders – Amit suggests how a Product Manager should be communicating internally and externally. 

Often a Product Manager does not have the organisational clout (power/authority) they need to get concensus. So Amit suggests that the communication style must be: “lead by influence, rather than lead by authority”.

Audiences

Amit outlines several audiences for the Product Manager:

  1. investors or supporters of the product (the first ones that must believe to get the product team funded and built)
  2. Customers, prospects
  3. Internal team members (and its role in staff retention).

The last point is particularly interesting post-COVID – in previous years all the cool companies were able to create perks for staff such as funky offices, fully equipped kitchens, free lunches. When everybody works from home you must be very sure that your product mission is compelling to your team members! 😇

MVPing your story

Amit runs through some structural elements he learned to do with not overbaking your story and in startup parlance, create an “MVP” (minimum viable product, or perhaps “minimum viable pitch”). Amit mentioned a few sources:
The course: Storytelling for Influence
The online book: Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences

Banner Image Credit: http://www.discipleblog.com/

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