4/30: Writing Is a PM Survival Skill
Good writing ability is important for a product manager. But why is writing an essential survival skills for PMs?
First and foremost, product management is all about communication, and in today's world, a lot of it happening asynchronously, in writing.
We have to communicate with users and customers to learn about their problems and pain points, needs, and desires.
We have to work with senior stakeholders, management, and other executives to understand business objectives and our company's strategic context.
We have a team to work and talk with daily.
And many many others. The ability to communicate information in a crisp, concise, and structured way makes it easier to collaborate.
We also produce a wealth of documents to be consumed, read, commented on, and worked on by many others: product strategy docs, roadmaps, discovery summaries, in some companies also product briefs or the dreaded PRDs.
Not to mention that well-crafted email that helped unblock a problem and move things forward!
Nobody is born a good writer. Even the most talented writers invest time and effort in their craft.
My advice is to set aside 15 minutes every day to write — about anything. Just write. It will help, I promise.