Have you ever heard - “You’ve got two ears, and one mouth?”
I think it should be taped to every single product manager’s monitor.
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The meaning is simple: you’ve been given the capability to listen with two ears and half the capability to talk with one mouth - so listen much more than you talk.
In our last newsletter, we talked about selfishness, and I mentioned we should move to dialogue from the standard monologue.
We’re going to do just that.
Let’s start with the basics.
Who are we listening to?
The first step is to identify who you are listening to and to identify any gaps.
You’ve got two ears, remember.
So here are a few questions for you you to answer:
- Who are you listening to?
- How do you listen to them?
Quick exercise: Take a second to ask yourself those two questions and write down a few answers.
EX.
I am listening to stakeholder | I listen to them by…
I am listening to customers | I listen to them by doing customer interviews, reading interaction data, and listening to sales win/loss conversations.Are there any gaps that appear? I bet that a core issue can be identified by who is missing from this list.
What do they want?
When we speak, we should do so with intent.
There is a lot of useless communication that happens with strategy.
Be useless long enough - you’ll find yourself being ignored.
So, don’t talk frivolously - there is something that stakeholders want. Answer this question.
If I am listening to them, what do they want in return?
In our previous example, we talked about customers. Ask yourself - what do they want when they interact with you?
Whenever you talk to your customers - address that!
Other stakeholders are no different - what does sales want? Engineering?
Well, whatever it is, cut everything else that doesn’t address it.
When it’s working…
You’ll notice you are listening atleast 2x as much as you talk.
Make this adjustment, and let me know how it goes.
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Thanks for reading The Adam Thomas Product Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
