Build Essential Product skills with the Human Skills Wheel
What makes one product succeed where another fails? Could be the design. Could be the analytics captured and dissected. Could be the technology behind it, or the features and functionality it offers. Maybe it’s the market. Or the customer. Or the brand.
I think that is just scratching the surface.
I say it’s the people behind all of these things. The way they think. The way they communicate and relate. The way they handle the tough times. The way they make decisions and show up.
As I talk about in my new book “Hiring Product Managers: Using Product EQ to go beyond culture & skills,” these human skills describe how a product person works and must go hand-in-hand with the technical skills that describe what a product manager does (e.g. conducting user interviews, pricing, prioritisation, roadmap development, OKR development, story-writing and much more.)
Human skills are different from technical skills, yet they are inexorably tied together. Putting a technical skill in action often means using a human skill. After all, without things like empathy, the ability to collaborate or influence - your roadmap isn’t going anywhere.
The Product EQ Wheel will help you start your journey to understand and build your own human skills (yes, just like technical skills you can grow and improve your levels of self-awareness, leadership, resilience and more).
The tool is based on a coaching tool called the Wheel of Life, and is created to help you identify areas of imbalance in your human skills practice and to set priorities for areas that you’d like to focus on for development and growth.
The skills in the wheel are some of the most essential to our work as product people, and I’ve included full definitions and examples of the skills in practice below.
I’ve also included a wheel without any skills included so that you can customise it to suit your needs. Perhaps you’re in a role where it’s crucial to have strong conflict resolution skills, or leadership - create your own version with these skills.
Or, if you’d prefer a virtual version of the exercise, check out my Miro board
Here’s how to use the Human Skills Wheel:
For each segment ask yourself, “On a scale from 1-10 (with 10 being the ideal), how would you describe your level of ___________ (Self-awareness, Resilience, Empathy, etc)?” This initial score should be a general representation of where you think you are. It’s a place to start, so don’t overthink it. Definitions of the human skills in the wheel are below.
Rate each segment on the canvas, and draw a line that connects the points until you have a second ‘inner’ wheel. This can help you to visually understand where you are compared to your ideal.
Identify your “satisfaction” score for each segment. This doesn’t mean that every segment has to be a 10; what score would you be satisfied with?
List out those segments that are bright spots; that you feel good about.
Next move on to the areas that you’d like to improve and list them out.
For those areas that you’ve decided to focus on, what could you do to move up one point between your score today and your ideal? For example, if you’d like to focus on increasing self awareness, can you challenge yourself to ask five colleagues for feedback in the next two weeks? If you’d like to work on your ability to influence, can you push yourself to set-up meetings with two tricky stakeholders to understand their own challenges or concerns on a recent project?
Decide on an achievable action to bring you one step closer to your target. Write it down, and note when and how you’ll come back to review your progress.
The great thing about the Human Skills wheel is its flexibility
The Human Skills Wheel can be used as a:
Tool for self-reflection to help you better understand human skills and your opportunities for growth.
Conversation starter with your manager or team to help uncover areas of development.
Team exercise to find out where you as a group may be lacking in human skills (It’s a great pre-cursor to the Role Canvas workshop to help your team better identify priorities for a new role that you’re hiring for.)
Human Skills Definitions
To get you going, here are definitions of the human skills included in the wheel. There’s also a reading list below for more information on each skill.
Self-awareness: Organisational psychologist Tricia Eurich defines self awareness as: “The ability to see ourselves clearly — to understand who we are, how others see us, and how we fit into the world around us.” Self awareness is the foundation for how we make decisions; our moral compass.
Resilience (or resiliency): The ability to adapt and bounce back when things don't go as planned. Instead of dwelling on failures, resilient people can acknowledge the situation, learn from their mistakes, and then move forward.
Emotional Self-Control: The ability to keep your disruptive emotions and impulses in check and stay clear-headed and calm in stressful conditions. This doesn’t mean suppressing your emotions, but rather understanding and managing our disturbing emotions, and supporting the positive ones that make life rich.
Adaptability: The ability to adjust to changes in their environment. Being adaptable in your career can mean you are able to respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations, trends, strategies and other processes at work.
Empathy: The ability to see another person’s perspective and their point of view. In the world of product management, we talk a lot about being empathetic to our customers. But what about empathy for our teammates, managers and colleagues?
Influence: The ability to have a positive impact on others, to persuade or convince them to gain their support. With the Influence competency, you're persuasive and engaging, and you can build buy-in from key people.
Communication: The ability to communicate clearly, present ideas and tell compelling stories is ever more critical to one’s success. People get energy from other people, they can hear and feel the passion and commitment in the spoken word.
Collaboration: The ability to work with others toward a shared goal, participating actively, sharing responsibility and rewards, and contributing to the capability of the team. You empathise and create an atmosphere of respect, helpfulness, and cooperation. You can draw others into active commitment to the team’s effort.
Reading List:
Self Awareness: https://www.kateleto.com/articles/what-is-self-awareness
Resilience: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/resilience.html
Emotional Self control: https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/how-emotional-self-control-impacts-your-work
Adaptability: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/adaptability-skills
Empathy & Communication:: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-essential-human-skills-differentiate-you-todays-betsy-ziegler/
Influence: https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/influence-emotional-intelligence
Collaboration: https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/teamwork-emotional-intelligence
Emotional Intelligence: https://hbr.org/2017/02/emotional-intelligence-has-12-elements-which-do-you-need-to-work-on
Wheel of Life: https://www.inside-out-coaching.com/uncategorized-en/how-to-use-the-wheel-of-life-coaching-tool-to-create-a-balanced-life/
Subscribe
Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.