WHY SOFT SKILLS ARE IMPORTANT IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

We apply soft skills, consciously or unconsciously, every day in our lives. This article explains the connection between soft skills and product management, and it shows how the Product Studio in Colombia keeps raising awareness about it by giving different talks on this broad topic.

Product and technical skills are important, but…

The technical skills required for successful product management, such as backlog management, agile methodologies, and roadmap creation are undeniably important.

However, recent studies in fields such as neuroscience and positive psychology have shown that soft skills like emotional intelligence, personal mastery, teamwork, and empathy can positively impact our work as well.

That’s why we, the Skyfall group (Soft Skills POD), are covering some of these topics as part of the Product Talks. Here are a few of our biggest learnings so far.

Assertive communication and client management

As Business Analysts and Product Managers (not excluding other roles involved in software development), we are often working with multiple types of teams and different personalities. This means that some team members work in different ways than we do, and some clients may be more or less demanding. When working with different personality types, it is not always easy to please every person in the room while simultaneously managing expectations and meeting agendas. For instance, we may find ourselves in a situation in which we need to say “no” to a client or even contradict them.

This is when your soft skills like assertive communication will become very important. Ideally, you want to sound assertive and knowledgeable. You should be concise, staying calm, polite, and respectful, and always try to have a positive mindset about the outcome. For instance, paraphrasing your colleagues in order to clarify the ideas is a very effective way of understanding each other. It can be the way to obtain a good relationship with your partners as a team member and your clients. Remember to work in your body language: correct posture demonstrates certainty in your way to communicate ideas.

Body Language and Public speaking

When you try to communicate any message in your personal or professional life, your body, your language, your tone of voice, and your look could be decisive to obtain the goal that you want, if you show a bad posture or your tone of voice is low, you will display a low confident and it will be reflected in the attitude of the counterpart, you can lose attention, however, if you have a good posture and you show as a very confident person, the people who are you interacting with will trust in you and your ideas. Applying this soft skill in Product management, when you try to expose any idea regarding the business and the product, it´s similar to how you sale something, you should show a convincing person, and your speech should have a good structure to display organized ideas, the introduction should engage the audience, the body of the speech should contain the core of your ideas, try do not lose the focus because you can lose the attention if you are not concrete or maybe if you use several ah-counter, it could be the reason to lose the direct message with your audience. The conclusion is a way to generate remembrance in the audience or the counter part. Try to check the gaps to be closed in your body language and your public speaking skill recording yourself and validating your tone of voice, also counting the amount of ah-counter that you say, all the time try to reduce this amount between recording and recording. Self-criticism is the most important way to improve body language and public speaking.

Negotiation

Remember that the first negotiation is with yourself: you need to establish your own limits. Keep in mind that you have only seven seconds to make a good impression in order to negotiate. Another key to achieving a positive negotiation is identifying the environment, the culture of the counterpart and the stakeholders to be included because you could have several sessions to negotiate if the counterpart is not the person who decides. We recommend preparing the strategy of the negotiation using the proper type of questions, all the time try to listen to understand and connect your questions with the items listened to. Don’t be shy about making proposals that may seem difficult to reach: remember that everything could be viable. Reaching an agreement is not always required. If you consider a specific agreement is not a good option for you or your team, you can say “No.” Winning is subjective because saying “No” to a non-viable project can be your best alternative. We recommend using a proper communication channel, also the assertive communication tips, body language, and try recording video meetings (always asking for consent), because rewatching yourself could help improve your negotiation skills.

Spirituality & Happiness at Work

Spirituality & Happiness at Work We are human beings, and as humans, we are so much more than our roles at work. This is where spirituality, understood as being more human with the people we interact with, comes into play.

For instance, sharing your personal experiences can help other people to recognize similar situations in which a different mindset may be helpful. Sharing your perspective can help others to be aware of other people’s mistakes and successes, and ultimately help them make better decisions that could improve their project performance.

Learning how to be more self-aware and learn from yourself is also a good thing to try. When we understand ourselves, we can understand others much better… and this is our daily call. Meditation, for instance, is a practice that can help you solve problems (with a lot of positive side-effects).

Conclusion

Soft skills should coexist with a product and technical skills. Incorporating them into your toolkit when facing the daily challenges at work can help you achieve your goals. Moreover, you can extend their use and see them as “life skills” since they will surely help you face and overcome difficult situations. In Sky Fall, we are convinced that a happier and more human Glober will undoubtedly do a better and more meaningful job.

Ludy Romero & Camilo Cruz | Members of Sky Fall Group-Soft Skills