Presenting is storytelling

In January, I asked all of Trade Me’s product managers to self-rate their experience and skill on 21 different product management-related disciplines, everything from AB Testing to Developing and managing roadmaps to Prioritising initiatives. Here’s how they answered:

Here’s the full data set, with 3 = “I complete this to a high standard unassisted”

Just last week, I started meeting each of the product managers to talk through their individual results, and to do some career planning. I’ve met with nine PMs so far, and one consistent pattern is a desire to do more public speaking. This is especially interesting as it wasn’t an explicit item I was asking them to rate! Still, communication is one of the most important skills a product manager can have, so it makes sense.

The good news is that I think it is pretty easy to build up public speaking muscle. A Trade Me product manager can start with internal talks like a monthly product management guild session, or a Friday night Tech Talk or a Brown Bag lunch, and then move onto external meet-ups like Product Tank, before applying to speak at conferences like UXNZ.

One tip though — when presenting, try and think about the story you are telling. To Sell is Human, a practical book as much about story telling as it is selling, has some useful advice:

• When telling a story, use this format: Once upon a time ______________________________. Every day, _______________. One day _____________ ____________. Because of that, ___________________. Because of that, _______________________. Until finally ___________________. Also, read all twenty-two of former Pixar story artist Emma Coats’s story rules: http://bit.ly/jlVWrG
• Use rhymes. Rhymes boost what linguists and cognitive scientists call “processing fluency,” the ease with which our minds slice, dice, and make sense of stimuli. Rhymes taste great and go down easily and we equate that smoothness with accuracy. In this way, rhyme can enhance reason.
• Use one word. In his 2012 re-election campaign, President Barack Obama built his entire strategy around one word: “Forward.”
• Practice. How do artists get better at their craft? They practice, of course. But they also pay attention…With a small notepad or on your smartphone, jot down the great pitches you hear as you’re moving through the world — a shrewd advertising tagline, a mom’s request to her kid, a colleague’s plea for a new assignment. This exercise serves two purposes. It will make you aware of all the pitches in your midst. And it will help you see which techniques move others and which merely drift into the wind.
• Ask questions if you are trying to persuade people of your point of view. Beginning with research in the 1980s, several scholars have found that questions can outperform statements in persuading others.

One bonus communication tip:

• Be mysterious in your email subject lines. Want someone to read your email? People were quite likely to “read emails that directly affected their work.” No surprise there. But they were also likely “to open messages when they had moderate levels of uncertainty about the contents, i.e. they were ‘curious’ what the messages were about.”…Your e-mail subject line should be either obviously useful (Found the best & cheapest photocopier) or mysteriously intriguing (A photocopy breakthrough!), but probably not both (The Canon IR2545 is a photocopy breakthrough).

Now get out there and get presenting!