Come to think of it, it seems there are 3 criteria for the Product Manager’s messages (in/out): consistency, clarity and completeness of the message, which once ensured, would free the Prod. Mgr for more creative and priority endeavors. Completeness would mean end-checked for the recipient having received, internalized and confirmed it. The mechanisms to achieve all of the above could be topics for further study and innovation.

If you are managing through walking around, you know when you are communicating.

Clear communications enables you to have more time to communicate. You won’t be dealing with miscommunications, so you are saving yourself effort, aggrevation, and time.

I think the challenge lies in refreshing that information on regular intervals. I followed the process of uploading information so that it is available to others. Initially it was helpful too. But over the period of time i noticed it is important to keep updating that information. Updating all that information became a challenge. That was a good lesson to learn. Now i limit myself to few presentations and documents. It helps me focus on my high priority tasks and at the same time is useful to sales, field, support etc for any information that they are looking for.

In short, one needs to clearly define how much information you want to share with others. Too much might mean a lot of work for you.

Rajesh

Have you tried a wiki? There was always management by Post-It note, where once it dried up and fell on the floor, it wasn’t important anymore. : )

David

I’m not sure about you, but I don’t have that much trust in corporate LANs anymore because I know who’s running the show. Internal IT departments are pretty much bare-bones operations these days (that is, if they are still in-house) and mistakes happen. Additionally, document disposal procedures may automatically pitch old email so that it does not have to be searched during legal discovery operations.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental PM Blog
“Learn How Product Managers Can Be Successful And Get The Respect That They Deserve”

If you stay on the corporate WAN, how is it you are not backed up?

I personally like a piece of paper stuck on the wall – it can’t be lost due to a disk crash!

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental PM Blog
“Learn How Product Managers Can Be Successful And Get The Respect That They Deserve”

And since I’m in the midst of a job search, I find that your message resonates in that arena as well. Sometimes you have to communicate your “key selling points” a few times, or reach out to someone via multiple channels, to get your message across.

You can do the same thing with your project or product communications. You can aim a curriculum at your user community, or your internal team.

I sometimes hear my friends who are PMs complain about the fact that a Sales or BD person doesn’t remember what my friends told them in a meeting or over email about the product/roadmap/etc.

This can easily lead to frustration and stress.

I think the key is to remember human nature. We don’t remember things that we heard just once (whether in person, over email, or on TV!) – unless it is a topic of much interest to us at that time. As a result, repetition becomes necessary – whether communicating internally to coworkers or externally to the market.

- Raj
Affordable Requirements Management Tool for Product Managers

Everyone has their own channel preferences. And, even within a particular channel like a blog, some people want their RSS delivered a particular way. What a mess, but messy is.

There is a blanace between under and over communicating. If you are communicating so much that you are no longer able to keep up with the daily workload, then over communicating should be obvious. But, there is a flip-side where you are insensitive to the communications load. When is the developer overloaded? When do they fall back on quiet hours, because there is too much communications.

I know that when I was on the development side, I generally taught my product managers about my reliability and commitment, so that they would stop asking for status. Status is 99% complete, always, so why bother. The thing was that I was never late.

Then, again, when I had to ask a product manager for info, some of them never filled my needs. Information interchange should be a normal, regular, standard part of the job.

If some asks you and someone else answers, don’t assume that the person asking has been answered by that answer. Don’t assume that the question they ask is wrong and that they should ask another one. I’ve had so much time wasted with these practices. And, no, telling me that you have to ask the CEO doesn’t help me respect you.

I’ve posted my recent PM experienced on my site here: http://lukebj.blogspot.com/2008/11/advice-for-product-managers.html

I came across Chip and Dan Heath’s book “Made to Stick” (www.madetostick.com) through Fast Company magazine and their provides some key steps into crafting the right message that “sticks”. It’s actually an easy read as far as business books go.