Self-promotion For Product Managers

A summary of 'Show your work' book by Austin Kleon and its possible implications for Product managers.

The art of self-promotion makes me squirm and is not something I know how to do. It seems like this should come naturally as you grow professionally or expand your network. Easier said than done. The question is how to build that professional ‘personal brand’ without being annoying to the audience or becoming a one-minute-tweet-machine.

I recently read the book on the topic I had heard referenced numerous times, so I was excited to dive into 'Show your work' by Austin Kleon. The book's title speaks for itself — it emphasizes the importance of showing the work you do. Combined with the article in this community about the importance of writing, it gave me the inspiration to share what I have learned and inspire product managers or other fellows passing by to write and share more about what they do.

So, if you only have 1 minute, this is what I would like you to get from it.

Build sharing of what you do into your routines even if you do not publish it online. Find what you can share about your work regularly, choose your favorite tool or service, and start. Share your work, not your daily meal.
Do not be too harsh on yourself and do not overcommit. Start small, try it, and see how it works for you, even if it is just a tweet about the last hypothesis you have tested. Writing is something everyone can do and find time for. But you can choose any other type which is more comfortable or interesting for you: videos, voice, memes, cards with text, pictures and so on.
Always keep your audience in mind. You are a product manager of your content, even if your target audience is only you. What is the problem your content helps to solve and how does it bring value to your readers (this is one of the most complex parts, I know)?
But why should product managers show off? You might think (as I did) that a good piece of work should speak for itself. Well, kind of, but you might recall situations when it is not always the case.
The truth is our work does not speak for itself. You must show it or talk about it with other people so they would notice it —our words matter.

The other thing is that in 2022, great work is not created in a vacuum. It often results from collaboration, connections, and team efforts. Sharing what you do with others may connect you with your existing and future customers, users, and partners, to continue to build momentum, get feedback and improve on that.

Finally, as already said, writing for product managers is an essential skill and one of the most impactful weapons in your arsenal. It helps you to better align with your team and stakeholders and become more transparent and precise in presenting your points or arguments.

Let's put some bullet points here about why you need to share the work you do so the whole article looks more structured and solid:

Get discoverableImagine you don't need to explain what you do during your next project interview because the delivery manager has already read some of your articles, or the hiring manager from the client's side saw your posts on LinkedIn about your daily work. So they already know how you reason and make decisions.
Get visibleWhether it's your customers, partners, or managers, being visible on the Internet in a professional way is something that pays off in the long run. People inside or outside your company will start to see you as an expert in your field or someone they would want to connect with or ask for advice.
Get clarityWhen you try to put your thoughts into written text, you have to pay attention to the audience, the clarity of your thoughts, and the value you bring in your content. Whether you want it or not, it makes you think about what you want to say and how to make it simple.

Ok, it might be the point when you start to think, "Yeah, it may be a good idea to share what I do, but what would I share, and how, and where? Who would be interested in this?". So here are some insights I found valuable after reading the book and the article mentioned above.

Be brave.

A lot of us go about their work and feel like there is nothing to show for it at the end of the day. If we are not astronauts, scientists, or mountain bikers, it might seem like there is nothing special about our routines worth sharing. But whatever the nature of your work, there is an art to what you do, and there are people who would be interested in that art. If only you presented it to them in the right way.

Build sharing into the daily routine.Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal. Whether you are sharing it or not, documenting your process has its rewards — you'll start to see your work more clearly and feel like you're making progress. Once a day, after you've done your work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share. Try to stick to some routine, be open about what you are working on, and consistently post bits and pieces of work, ideas, or things you have recently learned.

Ask yourself the "So what" question.

Keep the audience in mind and remember that anything you post on the Internet has now become public. So, "post as though everyone who reads it can fire you" (as publicist Lauren Cerand once said). Think about how this particular piece of text would bring value to your readers and why they would want to see it.

“So what?”

Use what other great minds used to tell your own stories.

In general, every story has a similar structure and actors: the past, the present, and the future; the good guy, the bad guy. According to Kurt Vonnegut's structure, every story could be put into two axes — fortune and time. Main characters evolve and develop during the timeline and find their good or bad fortune. Picture the story you want to share on that graph and build on that.

Kurt Vonnegut’s shape of stories

Get ready for the bad, the good, and the ugly when you share your stories out into the world. The more people come across your work, the more criticism you'll face. You'll get feedback from your peers, managers, customers, partners, and stakeholders, which might be not as good or at least not as good as you wanted. So relax — it's not that bad. People tend to overestimate their failures. Remember that your work is something you do; it's not who you are.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/300122762672010153

While writing this article, I came through a wide range of thoughts like 'no one's going to read it, 'what do you have to share with the audience — they already know all this stuff, and "your writing is awful." As you can see from my example you are not alone in your struggles or doubts (if you have them at all). So this one last point is a sort of a bonus track — be an amateur. In the process of doing things in an unprofessional way, we can make discoveries. "In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities", — said Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki. "In the expert mind, there are few."