Communication

Communication is the oxygen of leadership. You can have the most brilliant strategy, the most innovative product vision, the most rigorous analytical framework, but if you cannot communicate effectively, none of it matters. As a Product Director, you spend most of your time communicating: aligning stakeholders, inspiring teams, presenting to executives, negotiating with partners, and increasingly, prompting AI systems to execute your intent.

This chapter explores the art and science of communication for product leaders. We will cover the fundamentals that have remained constant since Aristotle, the practical skills that distinguish good communicators from great ones, and how AI is transforming the communication landscape.

Why Communication Is the Number One Skill

If you look at any job description for a senior product role, "excellent communication skills" appears near the top. This is not corporate boilerplate. It reflects a fundamental truth about the role: Product Directors operate at the intersection of multiple disciplines, each with their own language, priorities, and concerns. Engineers think in systems and edge cases. Designers think in experiences and emotions. Executives think in markets and margins. Your job is to translate between these worlds, creating shared understanding where none existed before.

Communication for product leaders encompasses several distinct capabilities. You need great written skills, ranging from crafting a quick Slack message to authoring a comprehensive strategy memo. You need strong verbal abilities for everything from one-on-one coaching conversations to all-hands presentations. And you need negotiation skills to navigate the inevitable conflicts that arise when resources are limited and ambitions are not.

The excessive use of messaging in the workplace has, paradoxically, impaired our collective ability to write well. Fifty years ago, when an executive had to send a letter, every word was weighed carefully. There was a cost in time and money. Today, people fire off chat messages carelessly because they appear free. But they are not free at all. Teams spend enormous amounts of time clarifying confusions that arose from poorly crafted messages. The good news is that this creates an opportunity: if you develop the discipline to write clearly and precisely, you will stand out.

The Three Stages of Communication

Every communication, whether a quick email or a keynote presentation, follows three stages: preparation, performance, and measurement. Most people focus only on the middle stage, but excellence requires attention to all three.

Preparation

Preparation is where most communication is won or lost. Before you speak or write a single word, you need clarity on several dimensions.

First, be clear about what you want to achieve. What is your intent? Do you want to inform or convince? Educate or trigger action? Create connection or settle a dispute? Before you start, you should have a clear mental picture of your desired outcome. Too many product people launch into communication without defining success.

Second, have a plan. In a presentation, you follow an agenda. In a conversation, you should have a mental list of points you want to address. The discussion may evolve, but having a structure is always better than winging it.

Third, have details ready as backup. Being prepared means being armed with supporting evidence. Having information at hand makes you confident, even if you never need to use it. Going into details prematurely can actually undermine your message, but knowing you could go deeper if challenged gives you authority.

Fourth, show up properly. This sounds obvious, but it means arriving at the right location, at the right time, with the right energy and attitude. Preparation includes managing your physical and mental state.

Finally, prepare for adversity. You might face an unfriendly audience. The technology might fail. Someone might challenge your core assumptions. Think through what could go wrong and how you would respond. Venture capitalists are famous for testing entrepreneurs by deliberately creating obstacles during pitches. If you cannot cope with a malfunctioning projector, why should they trust you to handle real business challenges?

Performance

When it is time to communicate, several principles separate the good from the great.

Aim for a high signal-to-noise ratio. If you are familiar with engineering, you know this concept: a measure comparing the desired signal to background noise. In communication, the signal is your point, the information that truly matters. The noise is everything else: distractions, filler words, unnecessary details that add nothing. Your point needs to be loud and clear. Add strong supporting arguments, but do not dilute your message with clutter.

Harness the power of silence. Silence makes your words more powerful. It increases impact and gives your audience time to absorb what you just said. Great speakers are great pausers. They let important points land before moving on.

Leverage emotions. Jim Kwik likes to say that humans are not logical, they are biological. Emotion combined with information creates learning. Stories are the most powerful way to move people. Use personal or public narratives that reinforce your point.

Repeat your key points. You want your message remembered, and the two most effective tools are emotion and repetition. The chorus of a song is what people remember because they hear it five times. A good practice is to conclude by summarizing your key points.

Do not assume context. Some of your audience will have background knowledge, but most will not. As Einstein supposedly said, if you cannot explain it to a six-year-old, you do not understand it yourself. This is not about dumbing down. It is about using the right analogies, focusing on what matters, and not assuming prior knowledge that your audience may lack.

Focus on the message, not the messenger. It is not about proving you are smart. It is about conveying information that serves your audience. Even when you use personal stories, the message itself is what matters.

Measurement

Communication is more art than science, and like music, you need to listen to what you have played. The ideal would be to record your performances and review them, but this is often impractical for logistical or legal reasons.

A more accessible approach is to ask questions afterward to verify understanding. Did your key points land? What did people take away? The feedback loop is essential for improvement.

The Ancient Greek Formula

For someone still studied 2,300 years after his death, we know remarkably little about Aristotle's life. But we know a great deal about his ideas. In his treatise on Rhetoric, Aristotle proposed that speakers use three ingredients to persuade: ethos, pathos, and logos. These remain the foundation of effective communication.

Ethos: Credibility

Ethos is about credibility, both of the presenter and the message. The word comes from the Greek for "character" and gives us the English word "ethics." Steve Jobs had extraordinary ethos when presenting new products. He had built credibility over years by consistently delivering innovations that awed audiences. This kind of credibility takes years to build and minutes to destroy.

The challenge is that you cannot easily manufacture ethos for a new audience. The good news is that most people have enough natural credibility to be effective. My advice focuses on two principles: do not destroy your natural credibility, and leverage others' credibility when you can.

Conflicting messages destroy credibility. In a presentation, your audience receives multiple signals: your words, your slides, your voice, your appearance. These must be consistent. Presenting a project plan while appearing disorganized undermines your message. Wearing clothes inappropriate for the context creates cognitive dissonance. Using ugly slides to present a beautiful product makes the audience question the product itself. Speaking in a tone that contradicts your words (claiming excitement while sounding bored) breaks the spell. You must align all channels of communication.

Inconsistent facts destroy credibility. We live in a complicated, noisy world. People have developed sharp instincts for spotting inconsistency and self-interest. When we present, we sell. And when we sell, we face the temptation to exaggerate, omit problems, or even lie. This is a terrible mistake. Good salespeople never hide and never lie. Being truthful and transparent actually improves credibility. By telling the whole truth, you establish yourself as a trustworthy source who values accuracy over personal gain.

Lack of preparation destroys credibility. Nothing signals incompetence faster than being unprepared. If you cannot answer basic questions about your own proposal, why should anyone trust your judgment on complex matters?

Complexity destroys credibility. Richard Branson famously said that if it cannot fit on the back of an envelope, it is rubbish. Dyslexia shaped his communication style, forcing Virgin to use clear, ordinary language. If he could quickly understand a concept, it was good to go. Complexity makes audiences suspicious that you are hiding something or do not truly understand your subject.

Stand on giants' shoulders. When you lack personal credibility on a topic, borrow it from authoritative sources. Cite respected experts, reference well-known studies, quote industry leaders. Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." This applies to communication too.

Logos: Logic

Logos is the logical structure of your argument. It persuades through reasoning and evidence. You develop logos by citing facts, using historical and contemporary analogies, and constructing sound arguments.

Data is central to logos, but numbers can transcend pure logic. A shocking statistic generates emotion: curiosity, surprise, even anger. The best communicators use data not just to prove points but to create moments that stick.

Simplicity serves logos. Your argument should be easy to follow. If your reasoning requires a flowchart to understand, you have lost most of your audience. The logical flow should feel inevitable, each point building naturally on the previous one.

Pathos: Emotion

Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions. While logos convinces the mind, pathos moves the heart. Stories are the primary vehicle for pathos. A well-told story can make abstract concepts visceral and memorable.

The best presentations balance all three elements. Pure logos is dry and forgettable. Pure pathos is manipulative and unsubstantiated. Pure ethos is merely an appeal to authority. But when you combine credibility, logic, and emotion in the right proportions, you create communication that informs, persuades, and inspires.

Verbal Communications

I prefer verbal communication over written when possible. The interactivity, the immediate feedback, the ability to read body language and adjust in real time, these make verbal communication uniquely powerful. Different verbal formats serve different purposes.

Presentations inform and motivate people to take action. They are broadcast communications: one to many, often with limited interaction.

One-on-one meetings deepen relationships and increase mutual understanding. They create space for vulnerability and nuance that group settings cannot accommodate.

Team meetings enable collective decision-making. The goal is not to inform but to deliberate and decide together.

Casual discussions help you understand the organization's real dynamics. The informal network often matters more than the org chart.

Delivering Great Presentations

Do not start your presentation with "I am going to talk about..." This is code for "I am about to bore you." Start with a bang. Open with a surprising fact, a provocative question, or a compelling story.

Your presentation should be entertaining, and I use that word deliberately. Entertainment is not the same as fun. Entertainment means effortlessly captivating. It grabs attention without requiring effort from the audience. TED Talks are entertaining, and they can change lives, start movements, even change the world. Aim to make your roadmap presentations a little like TED Talks.

Prepare your story before touching any software. Write the narrative arc. Know your key points so well that you could deliver the presentation without slides if necessary. Then and only then create your visual support.

Rehearse with a colleague who will give honest feedback. Work on both content and delivery: the clarity of your arguments, your tone of voice, your use of silence, your body language.

During the presentation, maintain eye contact with your audience. When you make a verbal stumble, do not try to fix the sentence mid-stream. Finish it, then start a fresh sentence to clarify. Phrases like "Let me put that another way" give you a graceful recovery.

A Crash Course in Slides

I must confess something: I suffer from a rare condition, a particular form of anxiety triggered by horrible PowerPoints. I have witnessed too many presentation atrocities. Here is a simple guide to avoid causing your audience distress.

Do not innovate with fonts and colors. Unless you are a genius designer, use your company's standard font or safe choices like Arial, Helvetica Neue, or Times. Use a simple background, either white, very light gray, or very dark gray. Never use clip art. Clip arts are weapons of mass distraction.

Remove all distractions. Keep title positions and sizes consistent across slides. When PowerPoint shrinks a title to fit, it is telling you to write a shorter title. Remove page numbers: you are not writing a contract. Remove logos from every slide. Your first and last slides can have the company logo, but audiences know who you represent. Steve Jobs never cluttered his slides with Apple logos.

Less is more. The fewer words, the better. Each word must earn its place. One idea per slide. Great visuals help, but not on every slide. Create rhythm by varying your visual approach.

When using a photo as background, the photo becomes the star. Text is just a small addition. Choose photos with visual white space where text can live comfortably.

Stories first, data second. Lead with narrative, support with evidence.

Written Communications

Written communication has its own strengths. It creates a record, allows careful crafting of language, and gives recipients time to absorb complex information at their own pace.

Different written formats serve different purposes. In Slack, the unit is the channel. Conversations are ephemeral and contextual. In email, the unit is the thread. Messages have more permanence and can be easily referenced. Each medium has affordances that make it better suited to certain types of communication.

Memos make people think. I find memos powerful for getting people prepared for meetings. A well-written memo frames the decision, presents the options, and prepares minds for productive discussion. Amazon famously starts meetings with silent reading of six-page memos.

Emails should be easily digestible. For complex issues, use the "bottom-line first" approach. Put an executive summary at the top so busy leaders can get the essence without reading everything. Use formatting, spacing, and structure to help readers scan for what matters most to them.

Communication in the AI Age

AI is transforming communication in ways we are only beginning to understand. Large language models can draft emails, prepare presentation outlines, summarize documents, and translate between technical and business language. This changes what it means to be a good communicator.

The Product Director's communication challenge is expanding. You must now communicate effectively with both humans and AI systems. When you write a prompt for Claude Code or another AI assistant, you are communicating. Clarity, precision, and context matter just as much as they do with human colleagues. Perhaps more, since AI systems cannot yet fill gaps with intuition the way humans can.

AI also raises the bar for human communication. When anyone can generate competent prose with AI assistance, merely competent writing no longer stands out. What distinguishes great communicators is judgment: knowing what to say, when to say it, and how to frame it for maximum impact. AI can help with the how, but the what and when remain fundamentally human decisions.

Finally, AI creates new communication challenges. How do you maintain authenticity when AI helps craft your messages? How do you ensure AI-generated content reflects your voice and values? How do you verify that AI has not introduced errors or hallucinations into your communications? These are questions every Product Director must now navigate.

Developing Your Communication Style

Communication style should be flexible, adapting to audience and context. I use different channels for different purposes, and my style shifts accordingly. But flexibility does not mean lack of identity. Over time, you should develop a recognizable voice, a way of communicating that is distinctly yours.

As a manager, work to be approachable and create connections across the organization, regardless of departments and functions. The most effective Product Directors I know are relentless communicators who build relationships at every level.

Invest in developing your reports' communication skills as well. Work with them on both content and delivery. For content, focus on maximizing signal-to-noise ratio, improving argument clarity, and finding the right balance of ethos, logos, and pathos. For delivery, work on tone of voice, use of silence, and body language. Andy Grove called training the highest-leverage activity a manager can do. Communication coaching is one of the most valuable forms of training you can provide.

Key Takeaways

Communication is not a soft skill. It is the hard skill that makes all other skills matter. As a Product Director, you are in the business of creating shared understanding across diverse stakeholders with competing priorities.

The fundamentals have not changed since Aristotle: build credibility, construct logical arguments, appeal to emotions. But the practice of communication is being transformed by AI tools that can augment our capabilities while raising the bar for what constitutes excellence.

Prepare rigorously. Perform with authenticity. Measure and improve. These are the disciplines that separate great communicators from merely adequate ones.

Most importantly, remember that communication is about your audience, not about you. Every word, every slide, every pause should serve their understanding. When you make their comprehension your primary goal, everything else follows.