#productmanagers, it's normal to be afraid of asking "stupid" questions during engineering meetings if you're not confident in your technical skills. You're far from the only one.
Being concerned about looking stupid is *not actionable*. It's negative self-talk and insecurity that drags you down and keeps you from growth.
Instead, in those moments, remind yourself that there are no stupid questions..
.. only ill-informed questions that reflect a lack of fundamental understanding of software and technology.
So get informed and get curious.
Ask questions, get a tech mentor, read articles, watch videos, do tutorial exercises from Cloud companies, take a technical literacy course like @SkiplevelCourse , etc.
Life rewards action and upward growth.
Invest in yourself so you can ask well-informed questions/the right questions and build your confidence to walk into any technical discussion and trust that you'll be able to figure it out.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
I got asked via my newsletter about the traits of the best and worst #productmanagers I've worked with..
.. and man, this question really took me on a walk down memory lane.
I immediately had flashbacks of my time at Amazon as an engineer, working with some of the most talented product managers I’ve ever worked with… and ironically, also some of the most frustrating.
What separated them? Three things immediately come to mind:
- Willingness to improve your technical skills
- Ability to bridge the pm<->engineering communication gap
- Having an “enabling” vs. “telling” mindset
Common struggle from #productmanagers I coach:
Q: How do I go about user stories? What do engineers want to see from them?
Pro-tip I teach them:
Write broad epic user stories first.. then break them down into functional user stories.
First, write broad epic user stories to..
- Communicate customer problem & get team alignment
- Encourage coming up w/ creative solutions for problem
❗Do ⬆️ early on in your reqs research/documenting and use epic user stories as a way to engage devs EARLY in the product roadmap
..then break them down into more specific functional user stories to..
- Help engineers understand the details of the product solution
- Helps engineers start thinking through what technical implementation details