On Communication

It’s surprising (and a little depressing) just how many people are terrible communicators¹ .

There are two really simple rules to being a great communicator: 1) work backwards from your goal, and 2) match the style of your audience.

1) Instead of saying what you want to say, figure out what you need to say.

It is so tempting to just start at the top and unload. To make all the points that you care about, that convinced you. To info dump everything you know, proving that you did all the work.

When you do that, the only person who benefits is you.

Instead, start with the goal you want to achieve, factor in the biases of your audience² , and craft your message with answers to your audiences’ questions, concerns, anxieties, biases, conflicting goals, etc.

Lead with the headlines and implications. Anticipate the objections of your audience and address them. For strategy memos, speak directly to the tradeoffs and choices implied by your strategy. For status updates, give people the “so what” takeaway.

2) Instead of saying it your way, say it their way.

Some people love detail. Some want to know how it impacted the team. And some just want the TL;DR³ .

You can figure it out by analyzing how they write. Do they write in paragraphs or one liners? Do they ask questions about the people or only the project?

Everyone is different. If you can figure out (or, better yet, ask!) how people like to receive information, matching their style will be really effective. It’s a form of attunement (the relational version of being on the same page).

The Workshop

This is a newsletter-only section where I share a half-baked idea in hopes that y’all who are smarter than me can work it out with me.

A few grab bag updates today.

First, I’m on a podcast! Listen to it here. We covered a TON of stuff about doing product at startups, it was a lot of fun and will hopefully make you laugh.

Second, I authored the first week of a new Product Management course by Ziplines Education, and they are recruiting instructors to teach the course. The course is a mix of students consuming the online videos and exercises created by contributors like me, and a live instructor teaching once a week (with TA support and the content + slides are given to you). It’s probably 3-4 hours per week, including prep time, for 10 weeks. $4000.

Third, some of you may have seen the news about Walmart Health and telehealth shutting down (link for analysis behind paywall), following Optum’s telehealth doing the same. Healthcare in this country is so broken, it’s really sad. I’m rooting for all the people working to try and make it better, but color me cynical. I think the only way this gets better is by government legislation and regulation. The big insurance companies are way too big. Did you know UnitedHealthcare is the largest employer of doctors in the US? UnitedHealthcare doctors “negotiate” prices with UnitedHealthcare insurance, and what do you know, suddenly your insurance costs more. There is literally no market pressure to lower prices. And don’t even get me started on pharmacy PBMs.

Fourth, I just signed on with Headline VC to be a Scout for them. Which means, I have a direct line to the partners at the fund, who write Series A checks for consumer startups. (I get some carry in the fund if deals I source get funded). So if you hear of any cool companies looking for a Series A check, let me know!

Happy Wednesday, be well.

1  Any thoughts on why this is? I think people who study English, Philosophy, and Law have a leg up, but what’s missing from general education for the rest of us?

2  You should be able to, without hesitation, name all of the cares, concerns, and biases of every stakeholder you work with. “Oh, they really care about [x], they are skeptical about [y], they love seeing the underlying data.” If that’s not on the tip of your tongue, I encourage you to take the time to sit, write it down, and memorize it. When you’re in a meeting and something unplanned comes up, you want to be able to deploy that knowledge at a moment’s notice to customize your interaction.

3  I’m stealing a lot of this from Discovery Insights, which I’m a big fan of doing as a team. I’m a mix of yellow (inspirational communicator) and green (caring about the team), with a dash of red (directing commander) when I need to be, and low on blue (detail oriented analyst).