Francesca Cortesi — Product strategy: Unlearning how to communicate in a remote setting

I believe that when working on a product strategy one key element for its success is communication. I wrote about how important is evangelism in this article but what I think is equally important to talk about is how to roll out a product strategy when the global covid-19 pandemic has changed the rules of the game.

At the beginning of my journey with Hemnet product strategy, I had not taken into account how to communicate it while working in a completely remote setting. I was fully focused on the content of the strategy, not on how to spread it. But the closer I got to a version that I wanted feedback upon, the more I realized that communication in a remote setting was not a secondary factor.

I worked with product strategies and their rollout before and I consider myself a good communicator, but there was something new this time. I never had to work with communicating such an important piece of information without the comfort and support of physical meetings. It was completely unexplored territory for me.

Let’s face it, since March 2020 when the world started to work remotely, we have all experienced that award moment of talking straight into a screen, without seeing the audience's reactions and without being able to read the room. Presenting in a remote setting is quite different than having an in-person audience and many times it feels less powerful and engaging. It is not easy to keep the attention of the listeners, especially for long presentations about new and quite complex topics, like the one of a product strategy.

I realized that I was in the middle of a new challenge, something for which I could not leverage all the tools that previously had served me well. That was the moment I understood that I had to unlearn how to communicate a product strategy if I wanted to do it successfully with the new remote conditions that I had to work with.

I was in the midst of what Barry O´Reilly calls the ”cycle of unlearning”, letting go of previous knowledge that served me well in the past, in order to embrace a new way of doing things that were more suited to new conditions. If you are unfamiliar with it, Barry O’Reilly describes the cycle of unlearning in three steps:

1- Realization: understanding that what you knew and worked well is not serving your purpose anymore.

2- Relearning: thinking about the problem from another perspective. Take in a new approach, input, knowledge to create new tools for yourself.

3- Breakthrough: form a new approach, based on new information and insights. A new behavior that can help solve the challenge in another way.

Thinking in these terms was particularly helpful for me when working on the remote rollout of Hemnet’s product strategy.

REALIZATION

The first step, realization, is often the most difficult to take as it requires a full understanding of being in a new context. This realization is often not easy to make while being in the middle of something, because it requires perspective and distance. As I said I didn’t realize that I needed a new approach at the beginning of the work with the product strategy, but it became quite clear while working on it. I think that when you have the epiphany of a realization, you are halfway through the cycle of unlearning because you know that you have something to act upon.

I came to the realization that I needed to unlearn how to communicate the strategy when I started to plan for the rollout. In a pre-pandemic world, my approach would have been to book smaller meetings to present the strategy to key stakeholders, take their inputs, and then rework the strategy until it was ready for final feedback from the entire product development organization. At that stage I would have planned for a final feedback session, most likely a longer sitting with a presentation, followed by Q&A.

But when drafting the remote rollout I realized that relying on meetings to present the strategy, even when breaking them down into smaller groups would not be effective or efficient. It would tear me down with digital fatigue and would not get me to my goal of engaging my audience. This is when I understood that I had to unlearn.

RELEARNING

The first step of my re-learning journey was rooted in the understanding that I should think of my new remote setting as an advantage and not as a limitation. Using the exact same technique that I would have used in a physical setting would not help me, but that didn’t mean that there was not a good way of doing it.

I was able to find the way that worked for me thanks to the remote training I got from The Hows . Thanks to Sam and Johanna I was able to think about the pros and cons of sync and async communication, I understood that I could use the time between the different sessions as a part of the process and I was also able to leverage the different remote tools to cater to the different individual needs for learning.

BREAKTHROUGH: THE NEW APPROACH

Empowered by all this new knowledge I started to sketch all the different steps of the strategy rollout by asking myself: what is the purpose of this step? Is it important to have synchronous interactions? Which tools should be used to support the rollout throughout the process? Who should be involved when?

The result was a dance of synchronous and asynchronous meetings that looked like this:

First feedback: sync physical presentation to the PMs

The purpose of this meeting was to seek input and criticism from my most important stakeholders: the PM group. I designed this session to be highly interactive, starting from a presentation but then opening up as much as possible to questions and criticism. The point was to create a safe space to speak up, focusing on questions and discussions. Therefore this session was synchronous and physical.

I valued the synchronous part of this meeting greatly and I do not think that we would have been able to get to the same level of discussion screen-to-screen, mostly because we are still novice with the remote work.

Second feedback: sync small meetings with the book club participants

The purpose of these 3 feedback sessions was to get fresh eyes on wording from people in the company that are particularly passionate about product development, the members of Hemnet’s book club.

They didn’t get a full presentation but I sought really concrete feedback from them regarding the ”newest” part of the strategy, the one that I thought could be more difficult to understand (or easier to misinterpret) because of its novelty. The sessions were done in our weekly meetings while I was in parallel working with developing the strategy. It was a great way to understand if there was something not explicit or fuzzy in the concepts and words that I had chosen.

Third feedback: product organization

This is the step where I really applied the new approach, seeking feedback using a process designed around 3 steps:

1- Async videos:

No big sync presentation: instead I created short videos explaining the product strategy that everyone could watch - and rewatch.
I made an intro video explaining what I needed feedback upon and I made it clear why it was important for everyone to watch them ahead of a common Q&A. I made the videos as short as possible, no more than 15 minutes each, and independent from each other. That way they were more digestible and easy to watch. I also added some questions using Mentimeter at the end of each video, both to get feedback on how many watched them and to start collecting questions for the Q&A.

I think that the idea of the video worked really well, it was not only scalable and easy to do for me, but I also got really positive feedback from the organization. More than one person said that they were a great way to listen and re-listen to a concept, in a way that would have not been possible in a sync meeting.

What I would not do the same way is the usage of Mentimeter. I used the tool in a non-ortodox way and I must say that I had some troubles with it. I had picked it because it enabled people to ask questions anonymously, which I think is quite important to encourage criticism, but if I had to do it again, I would most likely use something else that would allow for the same anonymity.

2- Slack channel to collect asynchronous questions

The purpose of the slack channel was to have one place to collect all questions in an asynchronous way during the entire roll-out. No anonymity here, yet another way to encourage feedback.

On a positive note, I got quite many non-anonymous questions as well, which is a great sign of Hemnet’s open culture.

3- Synchronous Q&A

Ten days after the release of the videos I booked a non-mandatory synchronous Q&A where I recapped the strategy, answered both the questions that I had collected and the ones that came up spontaneously.

Having a forum where I was able to both recap the strategy and answer questions after a ”digestion” period was definitely a success factor in the roll-out. By doing that I allowed people to take their time to think before asking questions and prepared the ground for more meaningful discussions.

I also think that having collected questions beforehand was a great way to create space for everyone and avoid the most vocal people taking over the meeting.

90% of the product organization was in the meeting, despite it being non-mandatory. It was one of my happiest work moments of 2020.

TO SUMMARIZE

Realizing that communicating a product strategy the way I was used to would not work in a remote setting was the key to my unlearning journey.
When communicating a product strategy, or any new and complex topic, consider breaking down the process into smaller steps, especially if you are working remotely.
Use the time between sessions at your advantage: make it clear what is coming next and allow the in-between days to create space for thoughts.
Videos are a great and scalable way for communicating asynchronously, do not overdo them, just be spontaneous
If you plan for a Q&A, make sure to collect questions beforehand and to do so anonymously. You need to encourage criticism and to create space for the more quiet personalities, a remote setting is perfect for this.
Even when working remote sync meetings have their purpose. They create a sense of community and openness, do not skip them
As Barry O’Reilly says ”change is not just a mindset shift, it is deliberate practice. And the better way to think differently is to act differently”. Do not wait for everything to be perfect, start with it.

My journey with Hemnet product strategy is not done, but its beginning was definitely something really positive because of my unlearning journey. I am looking forward to seeing what is coming in the next step.

If you read all the way here and want to know more about how I designed the content of Hemnet product strategy, here is an article for you.

Product strategy: Unlearning how to communicate in a remote setting