Scott Baldwin invited me to join his Age of Product Excellence webinar series. We talked at length about soft skills/EQ, understanding how different functional groups think/act, motivation, and how not to act like an MBA. The transcript is here with a registration-required link to watch the full video. 53 minutes. A few of Scott’s take-aways and my quotable quotes:
- Soft skills are not optional, they are key in any role
- Communicate as a PM in ways others can hear, appreciate, and understand
- Learning and knowing how to work with others is the key to a successful career
“When we call them soft skills, it sounds like they’re optional or not important – and that’s entirely contrary to almost everything I’ve experienced and helped with over the last couple of decades.”
“On the product side, we have to figure out how to communicate in ways that people can hear, appreciate, and understand. Otherwise, we’re wasting our time and energy. It isn’t useful to complain about how sales or marketing aren’t getting it.”
“If I grew up thinking that the way to succeed is by getting the best answer in the class and having the teacher give me a gold star – none of that helps me understand how to work with the rest of the people in my company.”