“So, troops,
what did you learn last Saturday at Product Camp?” I asked.

“Empathy,”
said Gail. “Those folks have a really tough job in the high tech arena. They
are subjected to timing requirements and asked to deliver with, at best,
partial information and often are stressed out by management that doesn’t begin
to understand what they are asking.”

Kate said,
“True. But part of that is because sales types like me are getting too much of
a say in the development of the products.”

Rick paused
in shock and said, “Too much! Did she say too much? Did the super sales woman actually
say those words?”

“I sweah
thas what I heard,” said Rob. “She allowed as how sales were getting too much
say in product development.”

“I was in
that session, too and she is reporting accurately,” I said. “One of the
problems with some of the new processes is that the door was opened to sales
for their input but once they got their foot in management didn’t understand
how it was impacting the development teams.”

Kate drew
herself up to her full six feet, surveyed the table, sighed and then said, “If
you clowns would have let me finish I was going to say that in a later session,
it came out that the best development teams were the ones that had sales input
because the sales force is always closest to the customer. The trick for the
great product manager is to sort through all the sales input at hand, then go
to the field when it makes sense to listen and learn.”

Chris piped
up, “I was in that session, too. The product manager if he or she is really
good uses that field experience to get a deeper understanding of what the
customer really wants and needs, an understanding that goes beyond the product
currently in use or being developed.”

Rick picked
up the thread, “All day long it kept coming back to one skill that was more
important than any other. The best product managers all had it. So did the
sales people they worked with, marketing and management as well. That skill was
communication. They described it in a lot of ways…empathy, listening,
diplomacy, understanding, contextual understanding, ability to persuade
executives and on and on. But it all comes down to communications skills.”

“I’ll go
along with that,” Gail said. “I spoke with a number of the attendees during the
breaks and over lunch. None of them were the tongue-tied types of engineers you
so often run into. The conversations I had ranged over topics from analytics to
math to decision-making processes to using assessments for hiring.”

“My experience
was the same,” I said.

“So, why did
you take us all to that event, Fletch?” asked Kate.

“Because one
of the people that put it together wanted to include the views of a bunch of
people who are in the marketing and management arena. Your comments were heard
in the course of the day, in part due to the open structure of the event but
also because you guys are not bashful. You speak out in your areas of expertise
and you have working knowledge across a spectrum of businesses and processes
sufficient to know when to advise and when to refer the matter. My friend was
right. You fit right in and were welcome guests.”

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Join us for
lunch again next week. The topic will be Marketing for the Little Guy. Fletch
has agreed to report on his upcoming speaking engagement and what the people
that attended were most interested in.

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Jerry
Fletcher www.JerryFletcher.com is a Marketing Consultant that works
with start-ups, professionals, and small businesses to take their businesses up
a notch.

Jerry speaks
professionally on three continents. Learn more at www.NetworkingNinja.com