Day 25/30: Allies and allyship
It takes a village to bring great products to life and to market 🌏
A while back now, I was listening to Melissa Perri’s Product Thinking podcast—specifically the episode with Giff Constable, who said this:
Relationships are the currency of product management.
Normally, I’m not the biggest fan of making work relationships sound so transactional; however, I understand the argument Giff was making, which—to me—is when you’re caught between a rock and a hard place, a key differentiator to success or failure is the quality of your relationships—whether others are willing to go to bat for you or lend you a helping hand. 🤝
Building trust takes time and conscious effort. To me, the key pillars of trust are:
Empathy. Making people feel heard. Being mindful of the challenges and hardships they face.
Authenticity. Making people feel at ease when they interact with you because you don’t have a hidden agenda with them. Sharing some of your vulnerabilities with them to remind them it’s a normal part of the human experience.
Service. Helping others when they’re stuck or going through a rough patch in any way you can, whether that’s your expertise, time, or something else.
Trust can be hard to build, yet it’s relatively easy to lose. When you’ve broken trust with someone, have a transparent conversation with them, own up to the mistake fully, and ask them what it would take to mend the relationship. If they need some space before all else, respect that, too.
Finally, across product development, folks are coming from all sorts of different lived experiences, so be prepared to adapt the tactics you use with different people, even though I think the three aforementioned pillars persist.
How do you bring people into your corner? 👇