What do successful product managers do? They have the ability to keep their personal emotions out of the conversation when they are collecting/observing market feedback. While the best product managers know you want to be in a face-to-face situation collecting feedback, sometimes you can’t and you are forced to use alternatives like a telephone or video connection.
Regardless of the method used, product managers keep their emotions in check. They have to. You don’t want to influence an answer or an observation or a keystroke for fear of tainting the real market problems. If a product manager adds their emotions into the observations/conversations, you don’t get the real feedback that should be the driver for understanding the market problems.
So? You’re asking what is your point? Simple. As we continue to expand our communication methods, and rely more on electronic forms (like e-mail) and on our social networks (like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter,) we need to be aware that our emotions can not be seen.
Many, including me, have often been told to remember that e-mail is void of emotion. What may seem like a tongue-in-cheek “playful” post, may in fact not be read by others that way.
And, remember, what may seem funny to you may not READ funny to someone else. Edit yourself before someone else does!
I can almost smell your burnt fingers on this issue. To be honest I’ve done it a few times too, but then again, as you correctly mentioned, product managers are able to keep personal emmotions in check, which makes it easier to learn from these mistakes.