Product Owner: Be Clear or Be Cleared!
How to effectively communicate with stakeholders
There’s no way around it. Communication is critical when you are a product owner, product manager or any other variation of those roles.
That’s how it works: you get excited about your new role, you start having all those great ideas for your product, and you’re sure your users will be delighted, but then reality hits. More and more people within the company learn you’ve got all the answers (at least they think that). Then you realize you’ve been added to dozens of meetings, maybe two dozen group chats and email threads. Sometimes you don’t even know what’s going on. It’s a challenge.
Don’t worry because you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll learn which meetings to not join and which group chats to mute. But transparency and clear communication with your stakeholders will always be critical. It’s an area you’ll have to excel at. That’s why we can help each other here. I’ll write about my experience, and you’ll write about yours in the comment section. Shall we?
Introduce Yourself
As soon as you hear about a new stakeholder, maybe for a new feature or a new phase of projects you’ve been involved in, introduce yourself. Let them know what you’re responsible for, and make sure they know they can count on you. You won’t perform miracles, but you’ll do your best to keep things moving and the relevant information flowing.
Ask questions about them and their roles. The goal is the have a friendly relationship. After all, you’ll be talking a lot; therefore, a pleasant environment is always welcome.
Question Everything
It might sound annoying, but you’ve got to ask everything to ensure the expectations are well aligned. You don’t want to deliver something which was not expected. Try to understand the job-to-done and what they’re actually trying to achieve so that you can find the most well-balanced solution.
“Better safe than sorry” is vital here. Always try to conduct your requirements gathering sessions in a friendly way.
Say No, or Not Now
It’s hard, I know, I feel it, but we’ve got to say no when something is unattainable or if there’s another way. You might say “not now” in some cases. The team is overloaded, or there’s no capacity for many sprints. Be honest and say: “It’s not possible now, but we’ll work together on the plan to make it happen”. Believe me, they’ll thank you! Saying yes and not delivering is often worse than saying no or not now.
If You Said You’d Follow Up, Do It
It’s more common than not to tell someone you’ll follow up later only to totally forget about it. This is not good for your credibility. I can understand if you say you’re overwhelmed and it’s hard to keep up with everything, but we can tackle that.
How can one avoid this? Make sure you take note of all your “follow-ups” in some app or system that can remind you. Make a habit of checking all the follow-ups for the day in the morning. It all comes down to creating the proper rituals. Believe me, it’s not easy, but we can do it.
Keep Everyone In The Loop
There are many ways to keep everyone informed of progress, status, timelines and delays. You can always write emails, which is very effective. You can ping everyone in a group chat, which is very useful for specific news, but my favourite is creating a one-stop shop for information about your products.
I work for a major North American airline company and am responsible for many products in our enterprise integration platform. It’s a real challenge to keep everyone up to speed while adjusting all the timelines according to your team’s capacity without “hurting” stakeholders’ feelings. This is where transparency comes in handy. When they can see what is going on, they’re more understanding.
As I said, I prefer to create an internal portal for all my products. On this portal, I have an overview of everything that’s going on, scheduled releases, current sprint health, and current sprint stories. All of our contact details are there as well. Each product has a specific section with all the information aggregated:
- Business requirements.
- Solution architecture.
- History of releases.
- A dynamic roadmap (which I update weekly).
- Relevant metrics.
- Any other pertinent information.
With that in hand, I don’t really have to be pushing information to stakeholders all the time since they’re able to quickly get a glance at what’s going on, and if there are questions, I’m always happy to talk about them.
This is not to avoid talking to stakeholders, but the goal is to make our actual chats and meetings even more effective. It requires work, especially if you’re responsible for many products, but it’s worth it.
Be Concise, Be Clear
Be concise and clear whenever you have to write an email, talk, or write a document. Give all the information your stakeholders need, not half sentences (this is also valid for story writing and acceptance criteria). Ultimately, it’s better to add more details than not-enough information, which will generate further questioning.
Be Social
Even if you’re an introvert, be social. Remember, your stakeholders are people, at least until AI takes over. Therefore, treat them as such. Be interested in them, always respecting boundaries, but ensure they know you’re approachable and dependable. You might make friends, and at minimum, your work will flow better.
Good communication is not easy for everyone. Practice as much as you can, and you’ll get better at it. Be creative, and invent new ways of communicating. Maybe a tiny workshop with your team, with your stakeholders, whatever makes information available and understandings aligned, is valid.
There’s much more to communication; this is just a tiny bit based on my experience. What’s your experience, and how do you tackle this important part of our job? Please share with us in the comments!
