Knowledge Exchange for PMs – Product at Heart 2023

Something magical happens when you put product people in the same room and allow them to share their successes and struggles. If you attended Product at Heart, you probably had the chance to observe this firsthand. The power of learning with and from peers is undeniable, which is why Knowledge Exchange for PMs was one of the themed sessions at Product at Heart, in addition to Exploring Product Operations, Providing Directional Clarity to the People Around You, and Finding Clarity of Thought for Yourself.

This themed session featured three 20-minute talks and a quick roundup hosted by moderator Mirja Bester. During the Knowledge Exchange for PMs session, we heard from:

• Lily Smith, CPO, BBC Maestro and Co-Host of The Product Experience Podcast

• Dr. Nesrine Changuel, Product Manager, Google

• Janet Bumpas, Product Advisor

In this post, we’ll share some highlights from each talk. If you’d like to explore any of the content in more detail, make sure you check out the recordings from each session.

Lily’s Talk: What It Means to Practice Product

Nesrine’s talk: How to Be a Better PM Through Communities of Practice

Janet’s talk: Learning from Each Other Means Listening to Each Other

Lily Smith: What It Means to Practice Product

Becoming a product manager can be a lonely and difficult journey, says Lily. While there are plenty of good articles, books, and podcasts (including the one she co-hosts, The Product Experience!), it’s rare to jump straight from hearing other people’s stories into taking action. The missing link between these two steps? Intentional practice.

Lily emphasizes that the definition of practice means doing something regularly in order to be able to do it better. While many product people are doing product-related activities every day, they rarely do so with the intention of getting better. “Practice supplements all the other stuff; it doesn’t replace it,” says Lily.

How can you become more intentional about adding practice to your life? Lily has three suggestions:

• Playfulness 

• Repetition

• Reflection

“You definitely haven’t made it in product until you’ve come up with your own acronym, so here’s mine: PRR,” says Lily. She was also pleased that this allowed her to include a cat on one of her slides.

Playfulness

Playfulness requires freedom and a safe space where you can try new things and make mistakes. It’s hard for product people to be truly free from worry in their day-to-day work setting, says Lily, which is why it’s important to create “playgrounds” where they can experiment. Actor John Cleese often writes and speaks on this topic, and Lily shared a video where he describes the role of playfulness in creativity.

Repetition

When you’re practicing, don’t worry about getting everything right, says Lily. In fact, it’s more important to focus on quantity over quality. You can take inspiration from one of the #100daysof challenges you might have seen on social media. Focusing on repetition allows you to free yourself from the desire for perfection.

Reflection

Finally, it’s important to reflect and get feedback from others. If you’re not familiar with Kim Scott’s book, Radical Candor, Lily says this is a great starting point on how to deliver effective feedback that cares personally while challenging directly.

Lily has already been experimenting with setting up the ideal conditions for practice with her “Productplay” initiative. She organized a few three-hour sessions where participants practiced conducting user interviews and mapping opportunity solution trees. To learn more about how Lily set up the event and hear what kind of feedback she received from participants, be sure to watch her full talk!

Dr. Nesrine Changuel: How to Be a Better PM Through Product Communities of Practice

“What is the hardest thing about being a PM?” asked Dr. Nesrine Changuel. “You may think it’s about ambiguity and leading without authority, but for me it was trying to figure out where I belonged—am I part of any team at all?”

While engineers and designers often work in teams and review each other’s work, product managers don’t necessarily have a consistent group that they’re a part of. And this can lead to loneliness on the job.

In her quest to overcome loneliness, Nesrine discovered Communities of Practice or groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Communities of Practice can occur in all kinds of formats, like book clubs, workshops, discussion groups, and hackathons (to name just a few!). Nesrine says it’s helpful to choose a style of Community of Practice that’s aligned with your specific goals. Here are a few examples of common goals for product people:

• Learn new skills

• Grow your network

• Grow your career

• Gain visibility

If your goal is learning new skills, Nesrine suggests participating in an activity like a book club or discussion group. This will help you think about how to apply the concepts in your own context.

If your goal is growing your network, you can look for opportunities to connect with product people you don’t already know. Many large organizations offer some type of chat roulette that pairs you with someone outside your immediate team. Even if your company doesn’t have a program like this, you can intentionally connect with product people who live in your area through local meetups.

For those looking to grow their careers, Nesrine suggests participating in coaching and mentoring programs. You will likely start as a coachee or mentee, but after you’ve gained some experience and confidence, you can also participate as a coach or mentor.

And finally, if your goal is to gain visibility, Nesrine says, “It’s time to stop consuming initiatives and start leading them.” Taking charge and becoming the main point of contact will help you become known as the go-to person, which boosts your profile throughout your organization or community. In Nesrine’s case, she leads the PM Speaker Series at Google Chrome, which involves organizing both internal and external speakers and helps her feel more connected to her peers while boosting her visibility within the company.

You may be thinking, “That all sounds great, but I don’t see how I could make it work at my company.” Don’t worry: Nesrine has advice on overcoming the common obstacles of lack of time, lack of interest, and lack of budget.

If your main obstacle is a lack of time, Nesrine recommends putting time on your calendar where you’re most likely to be able to focus. She has an hour and a half on her calendar every Friday for community time, which can include anything from chat roulette to preparing for a conference.

If you’re coming up against a lack of interest, keep in mind that everyone has different ways they like to engage with content. Do you prefer books, presentations, or practice sessions? Find what motivates you and build it if it doesn’t exist already. “You’ll be surprised how many people share your interest,” says Nesrine.

And don’t let a lack of budget prevent you from making progress. Think of it as an opportunity to get creative. For example, instead of inviting external speakers who charge a fee, perhaps you can find someone within your company who’d be willing to present on a relevant topic.

Nesrine concluded her presentation with a few tips on how to help your Community of Practice succeed:

• Value and recognize what employees are doing. For example, you might encourage employees to set annual OKRs that account for their community work.

• Delegate and trust. Give people the chance to take responsibility for community activities. They will likely learn a lot about leadership and communication that they can apply to their day job.  

• Dedicate time. Whether it’s a set number of days per month or hours per week, giving people time to focus on community is essential. And try to leave it open so everyone can choose the activity that’s most meaningful and aligned with their goals.

• Onboarding for new team members. Whenever someone new joins the product organization, make sure they know which community resources are available so they can start participating right away.

Janet Bumpas: Learning from Each Other Means Listening to Each Other - An Interactive Session

Just as it says in the title, Janet’s presentation was interactive, so you may want to grab a partner to go through this section with you.

“My grandfather used to tell me, ‘If you want a better answer, ask better questions,’” said Janet. Her goal for this session was to help participants practice asking better questions.

First, she asked people to partner up with someone they didn’t already know and to think of a meaty challenge, like something related to their product strategy or OKRs.

In Round 1, the first person shares their challenge and the second person asks only factual questions (who, what, when, where). Their goal is to get the story straight and be able to feed it back to the other person without sharing any judgments or solutions.

In Round 2, participants switch roles. The listener from Round 1 becomes the speaker and they now share their challenge. But the listener in this round is now taking a factual and emotional perspective. They will listen for and try to identify the emotions the speaker is expressing, whether positive like “eager” and “proud” or negative like “discouraged” or “overwhelmed.”

And in Round 3, participants will switch roles again. This time, the listener is focusing on factual, emotional, and generative perspectives. Janet explained that “generative” refers to the underlying needs the person has. These include broad categories like autonomy, integrity, and interdependence.

Once all the rounds are complete, take a moment to reflect on your observations from this experience. How did it feel to try listening at deeper levels? How might you apply this style of listening with your customers and coworkers?

One of the participants at Product at Heart made the following observation: “The first three minutes felt too long and the last five minutes felt too short. You develop more interest when you get deeper.”

Looking for even more ideas and inspiration from Product at Heart? Make sure you check out our blog and video archive!