Part 1 of the 'writing skills' that make a great product manager
There are many skills you need to have to be a great product manager. One of the skills that people overlook is 'communication'. Great communication skills can be the difference between a mediocre PM and a great PM, but it can also be the difference between a mere PM and a product leader. Most PMs focus on building trust through verbal communication.
However, I rather believe that written communication is more powerful in building trust.
Writing is hard, time consuming, and requires discipline. It can take many forms, from memos to explain ideas, documents to make your team more effective, and storytelling to shape your organizational vision for a product. If written effectively, these documents can convey structure, structure and clarity in product management.
In Part 1 of the post, I'm going to talk about why writing is important to product managers and when to write.
In Part 2 of the post, we will discuss 'what to write and how to write'.
My goal is to improve your writing skills so you can lead organizations more efficiently and quickly, and build stronger products for your customers. In the end, your future self, the people you have a stake in, and even your customers will appreciate.
Why is writing important?
I didn't really understand the power of writing before I joined Amazon. At Amazon, writing is fundamental to every position in the company. Over the years, I've come to understand the power of writing and create a love for it, writing Amazon's standard six-page memos, requirements documents, and emails. I've come to realize that writing can deepen discussions, save time, and allow us to build better products. Writing will make you a more versatile PM.
1. It makes you thorough.
Writing is a mechanism for organizing thoughts objectively. You can think more deeply about your content, and tell your story more cohesively and effectively. One word, one sentence, one paragraph, it's all important. You need to focus more on content, scope and flow than visuals, style and format.
If you can't write a well-structured, six-page document with a story, you're not thinking clearly.
Jeff Bezos
At Amazon, we encourage this culture of writing. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also used writing. Whether you're a new PM or product director, you need to write to sell ideas, create product requirements documents, and report progress.
● Writing helps me make better decisions.
● You will also learn to think deeply and systematically.
● You will learn how to look at issues holistically.
● You will learn how to ask the right questions.
● You will learn how to fix the problem.
● Learn how to handle any ambiguity.
In conclusion, the power of writing like this is greatly applied to the work of product managers in all companies.
2. It saves you time.
I can often see scenes where writing is annoying, so I replace it with a meeting. Why waste an hour or a long time in a meeting when you can organize your thoughts well in an email? Why waste time talking when you can document your product requirements and then get feedback via Slack? Why waste time talking when you can draft a proposal and exchange opinions on paper?
Time is money because PMs always have a lot to do. Don't waste your golden hour on unproductive meetings.
Spend time on paperwork, and use face-to-face meetings only for productive discussions. Use email and Slack instead of meetings. With the shift to remote work and asynchronous work styles, communicate more actively through writing. In the end, you'll find that meetings aren't all that necessary. And you will find that your time will be used more efficiently.
3. Writing allows you to share your thoughts.
● Articles can be shared.
● Can be reused.
● No time constraints.
● It serves as a document and can also be stored on an organization's central system.
● Because it exists even after leaving the hand of the person who created it, it can be referred to later.
● It can also reduce bus factor risk within the organization.
Bus factor: A factor that arises when one of the team members suddenly falls into the team due to an unexpected incident (a black humorous expression such as 'If you get hit by a bus while walking on the road')
When writing a document, it must have completeness and be comprehensive so that it can be widely shared. Most readers don't have all the context, so you should include as much information as possible. You should make your thoughts and recommendations clear so that further explanation is not necessary. Finally, it's a good idea to frequently share documents horizontally (team and colleagues), vertically (above), and externally (customers). Over time, your writing will become a very useful reference for you and your organization.
When should I write?
Time is money! If you are a PM, your schedule is probably full. But that doesn't mean you have to feel pressured. The biggest difference between a mediocre PM and a great PM is 'time management'. Great PMs prioritize their schedules. Even in many schedules, make sure to include breaks and personal work time for maximum efficiency. In the time I do personal work, I do research, study, and most importantly, 'writing'. If you set aside a few days a week to write, you can get ahead of the rest of your team and make sure your product is moving in the right direction.
You might use this writing time to conceive of a new product strategy, draft an upcoming product requirements document, or pass on required documents to team members and colleagues. Whatever you do, make sure that you are not interrupted by other schedules during this time. You need to be in full control of your own schedule and keep a balance between the urgent and the important. While you continue to work as a PM, writing will become an important part of your product development schedule if you make good use of these writing hours.
▶The content of the text was adapted from https://medium.com/swlh/the-power-of-writing-in-product-management-2fadf0f80bc2 .
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