10X Your Product Management Capability With Stronger Human Skills (Part 1 — Communication)
At our company Next Level Product Coaching (NLPC) we’ve been thinking about how to measurably lift the capability of product managers across the globe. Not just theoretically, but in practical ways which help individuals, their teams and their organisations. And at scale!
What if there were a handful of human (aka soft) skills you could develop that would 10x your capability. That’s growth you’re unlikely to see from developing technical (aka hard) skills like product strategy or using the latest framework. But how do you know what skills you really need to develop?
The problem with most skills assessments is that they’re subjective. In our experience, if you ask a product manager how good they think they are at something, they will either under or over rate themselves. The same can be said for assessments by peers or leaders.
But what if there was a more objective way to assess your capability?
One of the core skills you need as a product manager is communication. So how could we objectively assess the capability of someone as a communicator?
Using a scale of 1-5 where 1 is never and 5 is always, here are some questions to consider:
💡How often do you have the opportunity to talk in groups of different sizes?
💡How often do you prepare key messages before communicating with people?
💡How often do you tailor your content to suit different audiences?
💡How often do you make eye contact with the people you are talking to?
💡How often do you use storytelling to help explain something to people?
💡How often do you use visual aids to help explain something to people?
💡How often do you check the people you are talking to understand what you are saying?
💡How often do you need to introduce additional (unplanned) information before people fully understand what you are talking about?
This is the first in a series of posts we’ll be writing about the concept of more objective capability assessments and how our company NLPC aims to help measurably lift the capability of product managers globally. Next up we’ll introduce another human skill we think is critical to your 10x growth in product management.
What are your thoughts on this concept and the questions to assess communication capability?
