Silent product managers

are good product managers.

Walter Isaacson loves to say that great journalists have harnessed the power of silence. Only by staying silent, by not influencing the people you interview, and by not asking pointed questions are you truly able to get to the facts and the people’s opinions.

By staying silent, you get closer to the truth.

Call me weird, but I like to apply that same practice to customer discovery calls as a product manager.

It’s amazing how much you can read between the lines, how many feelings and annecdotes customers (and non-customers) share, when you simply let them talk, with no direction.