Deb Liu: evaluation

Transcript context

…I would say for both actually, one of the most important things that I think we lack is communication skills because I don't know if you, the communication is the job. You can't do anything alone. You're not coding the product, you are not designing the product, you are not doing the research, you're not doing the data analysis. Your job is purely communication, and how good you are at communication is really, really critical. I think we underestimate that. We think our job is something else, but actually most PMs, the job is communication. Actually many jobs, your job is literally communication, and I think we underestimate how important that is. Having clear and good written communication skills, but also communication skills around broad communication. Can you get up and actually convince a group of people that your strategy is the right one? Can you write a six pager that seems so obvious that everyone's like, "Yes, we should do that?" Can you communicate the need for additional resources to get your team what they need? Those are all communication skills. One of the biggest challenges I see is, it's actually not just the communication skills, but the lack of courage to actually communicate. I get emails that say, "I don't want to bother you, but." Or, "I'm sorry to waste your time." And I'm thinking, no, don't say that. And I've coached a lot of people on this. Don't say just. Don't devalue yourself before you pitch your idea. And so I do think that it's small things, but it's also the big things being really comfortable in a room. One of the biggest biases we have in our industry is that we have a bias towards people who can speak intelligently about almost anything on the spot. We don't talk about this by the way, but if you look at the very senior people who rise faster in organizations, the senior executives, they have this skill. And I noticed this as I got further and further in my career, I didn't realize how important this was. And then I realized that anyone who can go into a room and speak about almost anything intelligently without any preparation has a huge advantage in our industry. Is that fair? Absolutely not. There are a lot of people who are quiet and are very thoughtful or need time to process, and it is a huge bias against those people. And it's also a bias against people who English is not their first language or they're extremely introverted or they have other abilities, I think. But I just want to acknowledge that here because if you have that skill, it will be rocket fuel. It will be so powerful for your career, and if you don't, it'll hold you back. I don't think it's fair exactly, but at the same time, when you go to an executive review, and I've done these product reviews where we have multiple teams, maybe 10, 15, 20 teams come in and there's a huge bias from the people who can actually answer the questions on the spot, and a huge bias towards those who could riff with the leaders. multiple teams, maybe 10, 15, 20 teams come in and there's a huge bias from the people who can actually answer the questions on the spot, and a huge bias towards those who could riff with the leaders. And it is just something that's systemic. Now, I don't know how to solve that problem, because the actual work matters way more in the day-to-day, but you're being judged on the 5%, which is your presentation or your ability to answer questions on the spot. I think it is something that we need to wrestle with, and I do think it's something which will play our industry. We might not have the best people at the helm because we have this bias, but it is real. That is such a good point, I have never thought of it that way, and it's so true, and I'm not great at that. I'm much better when I can think about it and come back to someone with an answer, and that is not fair. Such a good point. Your answer about communication being the most important thing to work on, that's exactly my answer to that exact question always. I'm curious if you have any advice for how to get better at communication. What have you found helps people most other than just doing it again and again and again?…

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