No matter how good your skills are, you are still afraid of the kitchen knife. Wherever there are people, there is a world. When we are in the workplace, in addition to our own professional skills, we also need to strengthen our workplace skills. No matter how strong your professional skills are in dealing with things inappropriately in the workplace, they can easily be buried or suppressed by others. If workplace relationships are handled well, the work process can be much smoother. Not only can we get twice the result with half the effort, at least we can avoid a lot of unnecessary troubles. As long as you are in the workplace in any profession, you cannot escape the twists and turns in the workplace.
Below I will share some of the most impressive things I encountered in my career as a product manager. It was only after the experience that I gradually understood the importance of doing things in the workplace. This is why in addition to writing about product managers, I will also share some workplace tips. one of the reasons
No matter how good your kung fu is, you are still afraid of kitchen knives
I used to work in a software company, and different product lines were responsible for the corresponding product managers. Among them was a product manager who came from the business line and was very familiar with business scenarios. At the same time, he also had good self-learning ability and taught himself various commonly used databases. Perhaps because of his relatively strong skills, he often refuses to give in when communicating with the R&D department. As a result, many R&D personnel who interacted with him were very dissatisfied with him. In a subsequent human resources survey, many people reported that they were dissatisfied with him and were eventually fired from the company.
In fact, when communicating with R&D personnel, it is perfectly fine for product managers to make appropriate concessions or adjust requirements without violating the purpose of the requirements. Although R&D personnel often only play a role based on requirements documents or prototypes, from the perspective of R&D personnel, there may be concerns or suggestions from a R&D perspective. Perhaps there is a simpler and more convenient way to meet the needs of users. It is not shameful to make appropriate adjustments based on the other party's suggestions during the communication process. It is okay if you insist on insisting and refuse to give in without causing problems, but it is shameful if something goes wrong.
The biggest shame in your product career
I used to think that there would be no intrigue in small business start-ups, because everyone is working towards the same goal and just trying to get things done. Until one day, I, a product manager with several years of experience, was told by the head of R&D, "It seems that your requirements document cannot be developed. The person in charge of operations has come from a large factory and has seen many requirements documents. Please ask him how to write requirements documents." ". In fact, in start-up companies or small companies, prototypes are often used directly to replace requirements documents for the sake of efficiency. Even some requirements or adjustments to prototypes that can be explained clearly in one or two sentences are not included. I was particularly shocked at the time. After careful inquiry, I learned that the needs that the operations leader was concerned about were prioritized lower. This situation is actually even more strange in the perception of product managers. If operations have problems with demand prioritization, they should go directly to the product manager.
Finally, I analyzed that during a phone call with a customer, the two heads of operations and R&D failed to participate in a meeting in time. After the meeting, they were busy and forgot to ask the two heads. After that, all requirements must be written in a requirements document, and finally, "It seems that your requirements document cannot be developed." The reason may just be that the person was invited to a meeting and did not participate in time, which gave people the impression that the other party was not taken seriously.
Be humble and act cautiously
This year the company's head of R&D changed, and the boss personally interviewed a talent who came from Moufeng. As soon as I joined the company, I was very motivated and wanted to improve the company's products and open up the system. I talked endlessly as soon as I opened my mouth. The department held a meeting and threatened to "get rid of the product manager" and "the product will not be easy without him." However, he did not expect that the company's products and R&D were actually getting along well before he came. As soon as the meeting was over, we received his rhetoric. Within a few days, he stole the work of many product managers, organized other business departments to hold demand meetings to collect requirements, and took the initiative to call customers to discuss requirements. As a result, after a period of time, not only did the business department not handle the demand well and complained to the product department, but some of the company's projects also left a bad impression on customers because he bypassed the designated contact person and directly communicated with customers. In the end, he was ready to apply for full-time employment and was directly dismissed. Fired.
During this period, I communicated with this person several times, and I felt that this person wanted to do things well and had some ability. Unfortunately, after he first joined the company, his tone was too high and he failed to achieve much. Before he had a thorough understanding of the company's business environment, he felt that he was working internally. differentiated. Even if you are the most capable person who has just arrived in a new environment, you need to first figure out the company's business environment, do your own job well and make achievements. After everyone sees the results, it is not too late to merge the product department or something. In today's era, it is almost impossible to fool others just by relying on some theoretical knowledge or concepts. The bosses will also look at the actual benefits brought by what sounds the best.
It turns out that "the leader asks you if you are busy" really exists
I saw in a short video a question about how to answer if your boss asks you if you are busy. If you say you are busy, the boss will think you are not taking him seriously. If you say you are not busy, the boss will think you are lazy. The correct answer should be to directly ask me what you want from me.
I was on a business trip to a customer for product training. It was a project that the leaders of both parties attached great importance to. Before the trip, the leader of the other party arranged a designated person in the group to be responsible for food, accommodation and transportation. Because I had arranged for a pick-up person, I didn’t think too much when I got off the plane and directly mentioned in the group that I would go to the airport. Unexpectedly, the other party’s leader directly contacted him in the group and arranged for someone to pick him up at the airport. I called the other party later and found out that the other party was too busy to pick me up from the airport, and it would take nearly 3 hours to get to and from the airport at my destination. I didn’t want to bother myself, so I told them I could just take a taxi there. When I was about to synchronize the situation in the group, the leader of the other party saw no reply and continued to ask if he had received the call. When I was still thinking about how to reply, the other party didn't say that he wasn't coming to pick me up or that I would take a taxi there myself. He just told me that he would be there in the afternoon.
Therefore, when we look at problems, we must develop the habit of seeing the essence of things. The essence of a leader asking you if you are busy is that there is something that needs you to do. Dealing with events in essence can handle things better. I have previously written an article about looking at the essence through the phenomenon. If you are interested, you can read "Looking at the essence through the phenomenon, how to analyze the needs of users" 
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I wonder if you have ever encountered something similar in your workplace? Welcome to leave a message and comment