‘I have no idea what the Product teams are doing.’
‘Product is a black box.'
When I switched from a client facing team to product many moons ago, it felt like the client facing teams were hoping I'd become their undercover inside woman.
With me inside, they'd finally know what the hell happens over there in the product & engineering teams. They certainly weren't working on all the feedback coming from internal teams, or at least that was the perception. I wasn't immune to that kind of thinking when my job felt like fielding product feedback from clients full time and rarely being able to say ‘It's there, we've done it’.
It was maybe even one of the reasons I wanted to make the switch - if you want something done right, do it yourself, right?
What I discovered was of course much more nuanced.
The reality behind the curtain
As a PM you are making trade-offs every single day that no one else sees.
I inherited a backlog that hadn't been cleaned in at least 3 PMs. Leadership had competing priorities. Feedback & issues were everywhere.
You're balancing technical debt against new features, long-term platform stability against short-term wins, and the needs of clients vs prospects. Not to mention creating more slide decks than you've ever wanted to.
For every feature you build, there are 10 you say no to.
And the one you've built might not have even been requested 🙈
When you're on the outside, it's easy to think your feedback is being ignored. When you're on the inside, you realize that every "no" or "not now" represents a dozen competing priorities that all feel equally urgent to someone else.
How to make Product less mysterious
Here are 4 key points I've made a part of my process.
Lead with empathy!
You're drowning in feedback but your client facing teams are fielding customers feedback - the good, the bad and everything in between. Their fair share of escalations too. Remember that you want the feedback & you want the requests! You don't need to add everything to your roadmap, you just need to listen.
Transparency is key
You need to share your roadmap, your constraints and most importantly, your decision making process. When people understand why you're saying no and what you're trying to accomplish instead, they'll have an easier time translating that back to customers.
Share things even if you don't think they're relevant - did you do discovery on something but it didn't pan out? Let them know! Did you update the entire backend of your product but figure if it's not visible, they won't care? Tell them anyway!
Build those connections
Without sounding like a broken record, building relationships is so important as a product person. You need everyone's input (and goodwill when things go wrong)! Ask people about their lives outside of work. Find out about their hobbies, kids, pets and ask about them.
Listen to feedback
If you think you're overcommunicating but you're still getting the feedback that people don't know what your team are doing, assess how you're communicating honestly.
I thought I was doing a great job at sharing what we do but turns out it's not quite reaching everyone. So I'm going to add one thing to my routine and re-assess in a couple of weeks: I will be sharing bi-weekly updates on Slack about what we're (not) doing. I'll let you know how it goes!
The takeaway
Product doesn't have to be a black box. With better communication, shared context, and mutual understanding, we can go a really long way.
Turns out, my old teammates didn't need an undercover insider. They just needed someone willing to show them what was happening - messiness and all.
I would love to hear some habits that have helped you put product in the spotlight. Hit reply and let me know.
Want me to write more about a specific topic? Please let me know as well :) I want to make sure this is and stays relevant to you always.