Repeat, repeat, repeat: the secret to successful communication for product managers

A little while back, I found myself on a wild ride of horrendous communication issues, desperately searching for a fix. Over the course of a few months, what was initially just a misalignment between a product team and an influential group of stakeholders, turned into a destructive work environment with colleagues not trusting one another. The relationship between the groups had broken down so much that I was convinced we needed a miracle to fix it. This article will show that a miracle was not needed, but a process of documentation and repetition helped turn the ship around.

While I was going through this period of communication issues, I observed that the main consequence of the conflict was poor communication and, as a result, the inability to reach any agreement. Not to mention the obvious sense of dread noticeable in many meetings. Decisions were made, then immediately questioned and unmade soon after. It happened over and over again. Product development started to take a toll as we struggled to agree on anything.

When seeking a solution the groups made an effort to come together more often and talk things through. It seemed to work at first because questions were asked and answered out in the open. However, what quickly became clear was that the same questions were asked only a few days later as nobody remembered and, more disturbingly, nobody trusted the answers from before.

Emotions continued to run high and so the atmosphere in the meetings remained tense. This, in turn, continued to have a negative effect on people’s ability to focus and retain information, which led to more repeat questions. We were stuck in a vicious circle of ineffective communication (and a dreadful work environment).

Previously on… Or documentation and repetition

Imagine a new season of your favourite show comes out. You finished watching the previous season months ago. Since then life has happened, you’ve travelled, met new people and worked a lot. Maybe you have even watched other shows. In other words, you have been exposed to a huge amount of content. Maybe you remember everything from your favourite show but chances are you’ve forgotten some things.

Luckily, the creators of the show have you covered – chances are the new season will start with a recap sentence, often labeled as “Previously on”. This is a commonly used tool to help the audience quickly get up to speed with the plot. And then you, the viewer, can hit the ground running and dive into the new episode of your show.

As a product manager, you need to think like a creator of a show. You want your audience, e.g. stakeholders, partner teams, to know what was “previously on” so they are up-to-date at any time and understand the context around your product.

When solving, or better yet, preventing communication issues at work, make sure to have your internal audience covered. Remember they are constantly exposed to a large amount of content, often have to switch from one context to another and so will hugely benefit from a recap. What’s the equivalent of “Previously on” in the business world? It’s nothing else than documentation and repetition.

Document and repeat

So, what happened with our communication challenge? No miracle was needed after all. Teams continued to come together but we finally turned the corner after we doubled down on documentation and repetition. In other words, we created a convenient recap sequence by documenting, often in a visual way, and regularly repeating what has happened so far, including all decisions and actions.

In other words, we employed a good old process for internal communication whereby we would regularly meet, discuss and document any actions (noting action owners!) and decisions made. We created supporting documentation to visualise this process and referenced it frequently.

Capturing actions and decisions in a shareable document helped us quickly spot and iron out any misunderstandings. Referencing it regularly helped everyone remember what we’ve agreed.

Over time, we all started coming back to the table without a sense of dread and the trust levels began to grow. Nobody was surprised by decisions that came seemingly from nowhere and we had more shared answers than questions.

Conclusion

Repetition, aka “previously on”, was the most impactful thing we did that helped us resolve our communication issues. Replaying and referencing what had happened so far, served as a useful orientation point and helped everyone get on the same page about the current state of affairs.

It is much easier to build on a foundation of unity as opposed to when your starting point is that of misunderstanding and fragmented knowledge.