134 / Lessons in Product Leadership: The Art of Communication, with Gabrielle Bufrem

When you’re communicating as a product leader, how often do you consider what your audience needs to hear…at that precise moment in time? How do you deliver your message in a way that they can understand? Product coach Gabrielle Bufrem, in her keynote at the New York Product Conference (NYPC), says that “communication is effective only when it’s actually heard and interpreted.” In other words, just because you’ve said it doesn’t mean you’ve landed it.

Communication Is a ‘Soft Skill’?

This is especially relevant for product teams and their leaders, Gabi continues, because “product problems are people problems, and a lot of them are solved by really good communication.”

More than mere words and delivery, good communication is about timing (when to communicate). It’s about volume (how much to communicate). And it’s about perspective (audience context).

And they call communication a “soft skill.”

Timing and Context Matter

Regardless of where you are in your product management career, Gabi adds, understanding what to communicate, when to communicate it, and what that communication means in the context of your audience’s experience is vital to your effectiveness as a leader.

In our world of building software – often accompanied by lengthy, overlapping time horizons – you have to balance what you say about the long-term product vision with what you say in the short term about the next MVP release. All the factors that drive your what, when, and how – i.e., message, tone, sense of excitement vs. urgency, audience, etc. – create all sorts of variables that require close attention.

Start With Why

Perhaps Simon Sinek said it best with his book, Start with Why – a sentiment Gabi echoed during our conversation.

“Before product managers can get to how, we need to ask ourselves why. That is, ‘why am I communicating this? What am I trying to achieve?’ And if the answer doesn’t feel like something that’s helpful, is it right for me to communicate this now, or is there a different way that I can say it?”

Missed Gabi’s keynote? No worries; you can catch our conversation here, recorded live with Product Momentum! You can also watch our episode with Gabi Bufrem on the Product Momentum YouTube channel!

If you were unable to attend the New York Product Conference in person, find out what you missed by reading our conference summary: Product Perspectives: Recapping the 2024 New York Product Conference.

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