A product manager's most valuable skill: Persuading people effectively.
But no one teaches you how to do this, and no one helps you understand where your persuasion skills may be off and how to get back on track. Without the ability to influence stakeholders, the team, and customers, it's simply impossible to be effective in the product role.
This simple model can help you get there.
Giles Turnbull's Three Layer model
Giles Turnbull, author of Agile Comms, has brilliantly framed the different aspects of effective communication, starting from one basic premise:
"Everyone is already too busy, most of the time."
The model immediately helped me grasp how the most effective product managers I coach communicate through:
Lure
Context
Details
Turnbull likens them to the layers of a cake, and challenges us to simplify our message and present it thoughtfully and incrementally through these layers.
Lure
"The lure has two jobs: grab people’s attention, and get them interested in finding out more. The lure gives people a reason to overlook their overcrowded calendars, and divert their precious attention to you and your thing, instead of someone else, and someone else’s thing."
Giles Turnbull, Agile Comms, p. 17
How many people realize the need to “hook” their listener? Veteran startup leaders, Hollywood producers, and marketers alike know the importance of a crisp "Elevator Pitch," a disruptive call to action. But how many of us use this effectively, in our verbal, written, and presentation communications?
Context
Now that we’ve given our target person something to entice them to break from their busy schedule, it’s time to give them the next layer of information.
Unfortunately, inexperienced and effective communicators tend to jump right into the Details at this point.
"This [Context] layer is longer and slightly more detailed, but not to the point where it makes huge demands on people’s time.
After reading (or watching, or clicking through, or listening to) the content in the context layer, the reader should be able to answer a question in their head: “Do I know enough to stop here? Or do I want to know more?”
Giles Turnbull, Agile Comms, p. 17
Anyone will appreciate the courtesy of being given the right level of Context - Truly busy people will get what they need and go on their way. I believe most great presentations that truly persuade are more about Lure and Context than Details.
But if you've been effective laying out Context, and the audience and timing are right, people will ask you to go deeper into your next layer.
Details
Now comes the final layer of the cake – the Details.
Unfortunately, most people start here, verbally assaulting their audience with an avalanche of details, droning on with no courtesy or sensitivity to their audience's needs.
Seen in context of Turnbull's Three Layers mental model, it seems cringeworthy to launch into a barrage of details before we've effectively piqued our listener's interest with a well-crafted Lure, and laid the groundwork with the right amount of Context.
Lure and Context are the product manager's tools of persuasion
Note that it's the product manager's responsibility to own and be in full command of the Lure and Context aspects of their product.
These two layers form the crux of a product manager's ability to effectively evangelize for their team and their product across the organization. Consciously and intentionally curating the message at these the Lure and Context levels alone will do wonders for your ability to connect and persuade.
Two questions to increase your persuasion effectiveness:
Where do you currently overindex? Lure, Context, or Details?
How can you continuously improve your Lure and Context messaging across all channels? Verbally, in writing, and in presentation facilitation?
Becoming a more effective product manager starts with understanding where you are now, and where you need to use Lure and Context appropriately to engage and inform your audience.