I think the tendency toward writing & speaking about tests, feature enhancements, etc, is that those topics often have metrics associated with them where we can clearly prove that one’s work led to a better outcome.

Softer skills are usually more difficult to prove the benefit of. My team brainstormed about a major partnership for months, but we have finally signed the contract and are just now getting started. When I kicked off the project “for real” a couple of weeks ago with the front & backend teams, I invited the full team (QA & reporting & others), who might not have been looped in until later. What’s the benefit of that? Did we save development time? Are we making a more effective product? I certainly believe so (and QA just told me yesterday that being involved early is helping them think through how our testing plan will happen), but quantifying that would be tough.

I look forward to you sharing more about the “soft” skills of PM!