Product Management
Build Trust as You Build Products
Five things you can do to build trust as a product manager
As a product manager, there is often a great temptation to move quickly on new ideas. Building and iterating on a product will allow you to deliver value to your customers. You’re pressured to get to market in order to maintain an advantage over competitors. But as you begin building products, you must build relationships with stakeholders. You must build trust.
Trust is like the invisible fuel for any product you build; trust enables you to get buy-in from all stakeholders. Whether you have a B2C product that has tens of thousands of users, or you have a B2B application that has a few high-profile customers, you’ll need their trust before you can build or iterate on the product. But trust extends beyond just the customer. Your company’s management team, engineers, partners, support teams, and sales (among others) all need to believe in your ability to deliver value.
So, how do you build trust? Here are five things you can do:
1. Communicate
I have written about the importance of communication before. Good communicators build trust with their audience. Being a subject matter expert and displaying confidence will aid your communication. If you can articulate your ideas in such a way that others can understand, they will begin to believe in you. This is not to say that trust is earned solely on what you say; after all, you also have to deliver results. But communication is the first step in the direction of trust. Give your customers and other stakeholders a view of the future from your perspective, then deliver on it. Trust will start to grow.
2. Build a Track Record
If you’re relatively new to your role or if you haven’t had a long time working on your product, creating a track record will enable you to gain trust. People will instinctively trust you more if you can point to past successes as a baseline for your future work. I try to deliver several ‘quick wins’ when I first start on a new product or feature, in order to build a record of success. The size of the deliverable is less important than the fact that you created some value for your customers. Repeatedly delivering value will develop a sense of momentum about your product. Being able to show this pattern will create a sense of trust with your stakeholders.
3. Show Empathy
Empathy is, quite simply, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Demonstrating empathy to everyone involved in your product will build trust. You’ll want to be empathetic with your customers in particular, as this will also enable you to interpret and address their challenges through the product. However, I often use empathy with my engineers and support teams as well. In many cases, these groups end up feeling left out of the product development process. In order to gain their trust, showing empathy to all stakeholders will make them feel less like outsiders. But a word of caution on empathy: you must be genuine, otherwise your actions may come off as being patronizing, which will have an adverse effect on trust building.
4. Lead By Example
Part of being a product manager is acting the part. There is no time for coasting when developing a product. The way you carry yourself as a product manager will go a long way in determining how much people trust you. And since the role requires strong leadership skills, it is important to act like a leader. How can you do this? It’s actually not difficult. As a product manager, you need to show your commitment to the job. Roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty, and do whatever it takes to get the job done. When people see you working hard, it will build trust.
5. Accept the Responsibility
When building a product, things often go wrong. You might not have catastrophic failures, but a series of minor hiccups will foster doubt among some groups. No product is perfect, so trying to eliminate all issues likely won’t work (although you should still try to eliminate as many bugs as possible). Instead, own up to mistakes rather than passing blame; acknowledge the product problems and find ways to fix broken features and processes in the future. I personally find that I have gained a lot of trust when things have gone wrong. If you’re able to demonstrate how you have improved as a result of an error, you’ll build trust along the way.
Let’s continue the conversation on Twitter or in the comments. For more on product management, follow Trust the Product on Medium.
