Raising Product Empathy Through Active Listening
To empathise fully, one must learn to listen without fatigue
To be successful in Product Management, one must carry a vast set of skills, not only blending business and technical acumen, but also utilising soft skills that enable you to empathise with the customer and understand their needs.
Perhaps the biggest undervalued skill of all is listening with full intent, paying attention to key cues that may reveal the true pain points to solve, then offering solutions that resolve their woes.
For this reason, I truly am in awe of Customer Services or Customer Success teams that absorb all kinds of customer complaints and issues, often with a sense of positivity, regardless of how angry customers sound.
So how can one improve their ability to listen well and deeply to their customers? The key is to perform active listening: going beyond simply hearing the words that another person speaks, to seeking to understand the meaning and intent behind them.
When we engage in active listening, we:
- Move beyond the limitations of our own thoughts and fully involve ourselves in the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of those around us
- Temporarily set aside our personal narratives and…
