Habit: Keep It Simple
This article is an excerpt from my longer piece Habits: Five Product Best Practices Learned at Amazon.
Keep It Simple For Executives
Executives at Amazon drive PMs to articulate their ideas concisely.
The Learning
Documents are intense, full of data and details. Everyone uses the smallest font and smallest margins to take advantage of all the space on the page. But when speaking to a room of executives, one should try to keep unnecessary comments to a minimum. K.I.S.S. (“Keep it simple, stupid”) rules when executives are present.
Answer the questions you’re asked. Make your point, and then stop. If what you said was bad and you keep going, you risk digging yourself a deeper hole. If you sold them on your idea but talk too much, you risk highlighting weaknesses.
The Systems in Support
Both the WBR and any meeting where the room reads your document before asking questions require a PM to hone their message. If a PM can’t keep it simple and to the point, executives will pick at the details. Living through this experience multiple times teachs a PM to know the product story and tell it well. Communicate out the metrics clearly but simply. Practice the Introclusion as a general rule.
Rules of Thumb
Tell a four-part story (in two or three sentences)
It looks like this: Give context by explaining the strategy that you and the team are driving. Explain the actions you took, and then discuss what happened. Finish off with the impact. Stop.
The Rule of Three
If you have to present ideas, stick to the Rule of Three. It shows that you thought through the problem but also keeps it manageable. You practiced this for your product interview, so keep it up in your day-to-day work.
Suggested Reading
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
