How to Design your Communication

What is this post about?

In this post you will learn how to improve communication and save valuable time. It takes about 1-2 hours of work and can save you many more hours each week.

We asked product people in a survey, "What skills do you think your colleagues should improve on?". The top answer was:

Communication.

Communication is a critical success factor and demonstrates the integrated nature of the Product Management (PM) role. Product people interact frequently with different departments at strategic and operational levels. Communication is necessary to build products.

But it also takes away time.

Another question in the survey was, "What tasks would you like to spend less time on?" – and the answer was:

Communication.

The time we spend in meetings, emails, and following up on messaging threads quickly gets out of hand. It takes us away from creating the product. We become a facilitators without creating the value we could add.

If a product manager is not creating, their role becomes obsolete.

Communication often just happens. Agile ceremonies, stakeholder meetings, team meetings, 1:1s, check-ins, etc., fill up the calendar. All these forms of communication are created with good intentions, but often the cost is not evaluated. It's time we're not talking to customers, thinking through technical concepts and improving our product strategy.

If communication is such a priority, why don't we make it more conscious?

Introducing the FACTS Method

A methodical approach has helped me stay ahead of the curve. Let me introduce you to FACTS.

FACTS stands for Format, Audience, Content, Timing, and Storage. When thinking about communication, it’s important to list the status quo. This approach not only structures the communication, but also encourages more conscious engagement with the content.

Let's break it down:

• Format: Choose the right medium for the message, whether it be meetings, emails, instant messaging, or project management tools.

• Audience: Identify who needs to be involved and what their expectations / needs are.

• Content: Determine what information needs to be exchanged.

• Timing: Decide when and how often to communicate (schedule regular updates or opt for ad-hoc communication) + how long it will take.

• Storage: Ensure that relevant information is properly documented and made available.

Invest 1h to get rid of 2h of Weekly Meetings

To create additional free space we can use FACTs to make it happen. Even 1h already can make a big difference.

Let me show you, how I did it:

Goal: Listing the status quo

To get there we need to start by listing all the formats we have in which we share information. This can be done from

• Calendar: Write down all team meetings, 1:1s, workshop formats.

• Chats: List down all slack or teams channels (go for 80/20)

• Ticket System: What tool do you use to communicate and update on specific tickets

• Regular Email Messages: Include all regular updates

From there it is a short step to list all the people and groups (audience), the content that is being discussed (alignment, strategy update, specifications,…), the times when we have our exchanges and the way it is documented.

The first interesting thing here is to add up all hours per week: I ended up with about 600 minutes of regular communication per week (I don’t count all the sessions where we really conceptualize something). For me, this is already at the lower end compared to what I was doing before. But it depends a lot on the company, the situation, the exact shape of the role.

A little Excursus on What we Need to Communicate

Communication is an important topic for product people, but what exactly should we communicate?

Goal: Understand what we need to communicate

Here’s a list of topics I like to keep in mind, because it’s either information I need to share or information I need to get from my colleagues.

• Relevant findings from research and data analysis.

• Issues we face and information we need.

• Past and future progress on our mission (KPIs, feature launches, etc.).

• Changes in direction (strategy updates, roadmaps, goals, etc.).

• Actual problem solving related to the product we are building.

• Organizational changes and day-to-day business updates.

I can take these and challenge them with the list we created above.

Keep, Update, Delete, Create

Now, we can go through the list again and label the formats we want to keep, update, delete or create.

Keep

Some formats are unquestionable, so a good candidate for keeping them as they are. However, before keeping too many, try to think about the costs involved and whether there are other formats that could do the job.

Update

Communication that needs updating has led me to take the following steps:

• Change what we discuss in the meeting (e.g. add an agenda item: Share new learning)

• Change the people in this group (e.g. add more people, or remove if they are not relevant)

• Change the format (e.g. from a face-to-face meeting to a weekly email update)

• Change the rhythm (e.g. from a daily standup to a bi-daily standup)

Delete

Some of my meetings have been really nice exchanges with important insights, but no real work agenda and not on the list of things I need to communicate.These are easy candidates to remove.

These are the real winners, but remember that when we remove meetings we need to discuss this with our counterparts. In the discussion I try to explain my reasons, keep the doors open, but e.g. move from regular to ad-hoc meetings. Most people I have spoken to have understood the move immediately.

Create

While this may not sound like our core mission (get more time to create), we can professionalise a lot by thinking about what we need to communicate. So setting these things up proactively can be a game changer in gaining trust.

Final Thoughts

Documenting the status quo doesn't take a lot of time. You can lay the groundwork in less than an hour. Designing the future takes a little more time, and driving that change even more, but the reward of not spending countless hours in unnecessary meetings is motivating. It lead me from having 600 minutes of meetings to 480 minutes.

Taking time to create is not an option - so it is better not to compromise.