Internal Communication
Internal communication is a key piece of being a successful product manager. You have to be able to deliver information about the products you are managing to everyone in your organization. This information needs to be both coherent, concise, and effective.
This poses some very interesting challenges.
How does a product manager go about making sure they are communicating effectively? I like to talk to those I’m also sending emails to, and having phone calls with. This ensures that I can ask follow-up questions to make sure my messages are getting across clearly. It also allows those being communicated to the chance to follow-up to make sure they understand the communications.
I’ve learned quite a bit about communication in general by listening to some of the choice podcasts offered up by the genius team that runs Manager Tools. Mike & Mark have an incredible set of experience and observation they provide to their listeners on a weekly basis. If you invest the time to listen to their show, you won’t be disappointed.
Anyway, here are the liinks / titles of the podcasts I’m referring to:
Good stuff.
So, as a PM, what do I communication regularly? Here’s a quick list:
- Release notes
- Release training (done by the PM team)
- Standard PM tools
- Weekly report
- Roadmap
The weekly report is one of the most important to me. In it, I include a big section titled “NEW RELEASES,” where I list off any new product / utility releases that have gone out over the course of the past week. Following that, I have another section titled “UPCOMING RELEASES,” where I discuss new products going out in the next few weeks that everyone should be aware of. I’ll also include any schedule slips, and the new dates so that everyone stays on the same page.
In terms of the release training, this is a challenge to get going. I work with our Technical Writer (who I like to actually have do the training, provided she has had a chance to learn what the training is on) to ensure release notes are generated. I keep this process very informal. There’s not a big powerpoint presentation - just a discussion, using the release notes as the basis. This allows everyone to use the same tools, and be able to reference specific items during questioning, or after the session.
The other item - standard PM tools - indicates things like updated product rate cards, product data sheets, user guides, etc… As these are completed, they are placed in a central spot and then the entire team (or in my case, company) is notified about them. We’re not perfect at this yet, but getting better. Documentation is an entirely other topic.
The roadmap is the big beast. Simply because, it’s never entirely concrete, and will change based on market feedback throughout the year / current quarter. However, it’s critical that everyone has a clear understanding of what we are doing and why. There doesn’t have to be some long, drawn-out report provided to back things up. But it should be clear that things are moving in specific directions to satisfy customers, take advantage of recognized opportunities, etc…
I find roadmaps to be the best point to discuss high-level product strategy, and actually get down to feature-level detail. It’s an excellent tool and should be provided and updated on a regular basis.
Now, I will admit that I’m at an advantage: I don’t work for a company with hundreds of thousands of employees. This makes it easier to back-up, “no agreeing to crazy features.” I can, and do, help construct the standardized legal process. However, it’s important not to be afraid of Sales seeing the roadmap (or anyone for that matter), once you, dev, and senior management are comfortable with it. But that topic is an entire other blog post.
In short, communicate well and communicate often. Make sure you are helping everyone in the company to understand the products you work with day-to-day - it’s a critical piece of your job that you must be able to do well as a PM.
