Blog 97: Products that successfully leveraged good writing with user validations.

An important and underrated skill in product management is writing. When we started working in product management, we were mainly focussed on strategy, execution, design, technology, tools, etc. only to realise that it is good writing that can make all the difference.

Good writing transitions us to becoming a great product leader. Product management requires us to write well at every step. This can be writing the product description, product benefits, requirement documents, user stories, blogs, website content or just simple tags/words within our app.

Simple changes in the words used can make a lot of difference to our products. As seen with Slack, Mint, and others.

Take for example, Slack. Slack is a cloud-based team communication platform. The founding team at Slack preferred the word ‘preview release’ over ‘beta release’. Though ‘beta release’ being a commonly used term among other start-ups. According to Slack’s founder, beta is perceived as unreliable (upon testing the words in the real word). So, the team chose a word that would get the audience excited. And it DID! Upon its preview release Slack acquired 8,000 users within 24 hours and 15,000 in two weeks. Refer blog 70 on how did Slack create a viral loop?

Another example was Mint. A personal finance software. Launched in September 2007. In November 2009, Intuit bought Mint for $170 million. Mint’s founder Aaron Patzer spent significant time in validating the idea (before launching it in 2007). He created several messaging concepts and validated them with real users. Understood what struck a chord and what didn’t. For example, reading the words “Bank Level Data Security” in the messaging made a lot more people say they would use Mint. Refer blog 46 to know the work behind Mint’s growth in user base.

Amazon promotes a culture of writing. And is a requirement in all product roles. They use writing to sell an idea, define requirements, and provide updates. Instilling depth of thought, better decision-making, and in the process creates shareable documentation etc.

To conclude, if writing is done well, it can provide a lot of clarity, depth, connect. It can also be used as a tool to resolve debates and builds trust.

Jump to blog 100 to refer to the overall product management mind map.

I wish you the best for your journey. 😊