How writing Click-Baits helped me in Product Management?
Writing stories about celebrities wasn’t my dream job, but it influenced my approach to product management. Discover the shocking lessons I learned from that experience!
All of us had that one job that we are not really proud of. But hey, even if we got paid close to nothing, at least we learned some lessons :)
For me it was a 6-month gig that I did for one publisher, way back while I was still studying and was more than happy to take any writing job. This one was for an online edition of a well-known monthly magazine, whose audience was mostly women listing pages full of gossip and shocking stories at their hairdresser. Smartphones just started to sell like crazy, banners were attacking you from every corner of every website and no one really knew how to properly charge customers for the content.
My job? Writing click-bait articles about lives of famous and semi-famous people, so called lifestyle stories. One day my editor assigned me a task - I had to call celebrities, asking them how they feel about the fact that it’s snowing in their hometown (I guess the story was that it’s never snowing there so the whole city was paralyzed). And I’ll never forget that embarrassment when one actor replied that he hasn't lived there for the last 5 years.
Anyhow. I’m not gonna explain what click-bait articles are - I’m assuming at least once you clicked on news about a celebrity that (shockingly) lost weight. Only years later I realized how much that gig helped me to perfect some skills and techniques that I’m using to this day at my Product job.
In this post I will share:
Key lessons from my click-bait gig that influenced my approach to product management
Practical techniques on how to incorporate those lessons into your daily work
Signals that will help you monitor your success in applying the lessons
Lesson #1: There is No Such Thing as a Small Story
Click-Baits
I often had to cover everyday moments, like stars taking casual strolls through the city center. A simple photo could inspire a narrative focused on their outfit choices or the significance of their companions. I might interpret their facial expressions to speculate on their mood or analyze their interactions with fans for insights into their public persona. Even a glimpse of a beloved pet could lead to a heartwarming story. Ultimately, each sighting presented an opportunity to craft engaging narratives from ordinary moments.
To be honest, it takes practice to switch your mindset to: What story can I tell with a photo of someone just walking down the street?
Product Management
Importance of Elevating Small Stories
One day I was going through a planning sheet in which all teams were supposed to add their quarterly initiatives, estimations and capacity. This document is shared with the leadership team. I noticed that we are missing a couple of important things so I asked our PMs about it. The answer was: Those are really small tasks, like 1 story point or no engineering effort.
While I agree that not every single task is worth sharing, impact doesn’t equal story points in Jira. It’s not that product managers don’t know that, it’s just that sometimes we tend to give more visibility to higher effort tasks and complex initiatives.
Therefore, ensure not to overlook the following areas in communication with your audience - stakeholders, leadership, users and customers:
Operational Tasks: These tasks often take minimal time or engineering resources - perhaps just a few hours of work.
Deploying an existing feature to more users or new markets; changing a configuration / validation / setting that improves security or guardrails; or just granting access to our API to another team - may seem straightforward but it could also represent an important milestone for the product.
Giving visibility to such rollouts and changes can help leadership and stakeholders appreciate the strategic thinking and recognize our commitment to increasing the adoption, driving growth or improving security.
Bug Fixing and Performance Improvements: We all know those are critical to maintaining user trust and satisfaction.
For instance, a narrative about a recent bug fix can include details about how it was identified through user feedback, the collaborative effort involved in resolving it, and the positive outcome for users.
Sharing these stories highlights our diligence in addressing issues, reinforcing the idea that even minor updates contribute to the overall product quality and user experience.
User feedback: It is a treasure store of stories waiting to be told. For example:
A story could be crafted around a specific piece of feedback that led to a small yet impactful change, demonstrating how we listen to our users and value their input.
Consider adding collected feedback to your presentations and newsletters - prepare it as testimonials, similarly to what some agencies or companies do when they want to emphasize on the satisfaction of their customers and clients that use their software.
Every piece of feedback can lead to a narrative that showcases our dedication to understanding and serving our users.
Highlighting even routine operational tasks, bug fixes, performance improvements and user feedback can provide valuable insights and foster a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. Ensure to give visibility to those in your communication channels.
Lesson #2: Attracting the Audience
Click-Baits
Is This the Most Stylish Celebrity Stroll Ever? You Have to See What They Were Wearing!
In clickbait writing, the primary focus is on grabbing the audience's attention quickly. You have noticed that such articles usually attract readers with 2 key components:
Sensational Headlines
Teaser Format
The goal is to evoke curiosity and interest to incentivize readers to click on the article and read more, to maximize engagement through traffic and views. Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that such articles might not often deliver on the promise and let’s rather focus on what they do good, and this - grabbing readers attention.
Product Management
Engaging the Audience
For sure, naming your Jira stories as You Won't Believe What Happens When You Click This Button! won’t get you too far in your product management career.
Here I’m NOT talking about developing attractive features that will drive conversions. What I’m talking about is especially important in both small startups and big organizations - knowing who your audience is and what matters to them.
Just imagine a day of a senior leader or CPO. They might talk to dozens of people just before lunchtime, go through hundreds of emails per day, or have calendars packed with meetings. Not just executives, but all of us are scrolling through a crazy amount of information on a daily basis, from documents, presentations, emails to chats.
How can you ensure that your message captures attention?
Text Formatting: Imagine that I wrote this post without any headings, highlights, spacing or bullet points. It is extremely hard to read a piece of text that just goes on and on without any effective arrangement.
If nothing else, use bold and spacing to highlight the most important parts of your message and to ensure that readers can capture key information within a second.
Ensure that documents are well-organized as it reflects your professionalism and attention to detail.
Executive Summaries: Also known as TL;DR 🙂 Craft concise and engaging executive summaries for your reports and presentations as it helps to grasp essential information without going through extensive details.
Focus on high-level insights, implications, and actionable recommendations
Visual Storytelling: Leverage visuals in presentations to communicate complex ideas or important findings more effectively. You don’t always need a designer to add visuals to your messages or documents.
Incorporate charts, graphs, flowcharts but also icons and emojis to break up the text and data and convey messages quickly.
Use screenshots when discussing new features, even if the new design is not ready yet. Highlight areas that are important for the problem you’re presenting.
Color Coding & Font Size: Use color and font size strategically to differentiate categories, highlight key points, or indicate status (e.g., red for issues, green for success).
Enlarging numbers when presenting data can grab the attention of your audience. Especially when presenting impact, you will want everyone to remember those data points after the meeting or reading a message.
Measuring Success: How will you know if your Audience is Engaged in your Stories?
Getting the right message to the right audience in the right way will ensure your team’s achievements are recognized. This recognition can lead to long-term resources, budget allocations, headcount increases, and individual’s career growth.
These signals can tell you if you’re doing it successfully:
Active Reactions and Engagement:
Your announcements on platforms like Slack receive not only reactions from your peers but also engagement from upper management, including thoughtful comments and follow-up questions. This indicates that your message resonates at all levels of the organization.
Responses from Key Stakeholders:
Your status update emails or newsletters generate replies from important stakeholders, showing they value your team's contributions. Recognition of your work in their responses is a strong indicator of engagement.
Inquiries During Presentations:
During important presentations, such as all-hands meetings, you receive numerous questions from individuals across the organization, including those you may not know personally. This engagement signifies that your message has sparked interest and prompted further discussion.
Initiated Conversations:
Colleagues and stakeholders begin to reach out to you proactively, seeking clarification or expressing interest in your projects. This behavior indicates that your stories have created a buzz and are top-of-mind for your audience.
Increased Participation in Discussions:
There is a noticeable increase in participation during team meetings or cross-functional discussions about your projects. When more people contribute their ideas and insights, it reflects a higher level of engagement with your work.
Positive Feedback and Endorsements:
You receive unsolicited positive feedback about your communications from peers and leaders. Endorsements during team meetings or in company newsletters signal that your storytelling is effective.
Actionable Outcomes:
Your communications lead to actionable outcomes, such as new initiatives, project support, or resource allocations that directly result from your presentations or reports. This reflects not only engagement but also the influence of your messaging.
Conclusion
Monitoring these signals will help you assess how well you are engaging your audience with your stories. By understanding the impact of your communications, you can adapt your approach to ensure your team’s achievements are recognized and valued, ultimately paving the way for sustained success and growth.
Key Learnings
1. Value of Small Tasks: Recognize that even minor tasks, such as operational updates or bug fixes, can have significant impacts. Sharing these stories can enhance visibility and appreciation among stakeholders and leadership.
2. User Feedback as a Resource: Treat user feedback as a valuable asset for storytelling. Highlighting how feedback leads to impactful changes demonstrates a commitment to user satisfaction and fosters engagement.
3. Engage Your Audience: Tailor your communication to meet the needs of your audience, especially busy executives. Understanding their perspective can help ensure your message resonates and captures their attention.
4. Effective Communication Techniques: Utilize text formatting, executive summaries and visual storytelling to enhance clarity and engagement. Organized and visually appealing content makes it easier for audiences to grasp key messages.
5. Monitor Engagement Signals: Assess audience engagement through active reactions, responses from stakeholders, inquiries during presentations and positive feedback. These indicators help gauge the effectiveness of your communication and inform future strategies.