While you consider product administration, you most likely think about roadmaps, KPIs, and limitless Jira tickets. However for Karolina Kasnauskė, a Product Supervisor at Omnisend, the actual job is one thing completely different. It’s making sense of chaos.
“I like to think about myself as a LEGO creator,” Karolina says. “I don’t make the LEGO bricks or determine their shapes. My job is to ensure we’re all constructing towards the identical image on the field — and that it’s one individuals truly wish to play with.”
That picture of constructing from shared items towards a typical imaginative and prescient completely captures what it means to be a Product Supervisor at Omnisend. Past constructing new options, you attempt for connection, translation, and storytelling.
Storytelling as a instrument for alignment
Inside Omnisend, tales are the glue that holds groups collectively. Each function begins as an issue, however it’s the answer that wants a narrative. A narrative helps everybody see not simply what we’re constructing, however why it issues. It connects the dots between the person, the issue, and the influence of the repair. That’s the place PMs are available.
“My position is to inform tales and share the broader context — the place we’re going and why it issues,” Karolina explains. “A great story helps the staff care, not simply perceive. I do know I’ve completed my job nicely once I hear another person retelling the identical story. That’s when it’s alive.”
Turning complexity into readability
Karolina’s day-to-day entails translating summary, cross-functional concepts — enterprise objectives, technical constraints, buyer wants — into one thing human and actionable.
“PMs stand on the intersection of so many issues,” she says. “Buyer insights, design, information, tech, enterprise technique. Now we have to talk all these languages, and storytelling is how we bridge the gaps.”
However readability doesn’t simply seem out of nowhere. It must be constructed intentionally.
When she wants to determine how one can clarify one thing complicated, Karolina begins with two easy questions: “Who am I explaining this to?” and “What do they really want to know?” As soon as she is aware of that, she begins constructing the precise analogy, framing, and degree of element.
Her rule of thumb is definitely surprisingly easy:
“Readability begins with you. Should you can’t clarify it to your self, you’ll by no means make it clear for anybody else.”
She avoids jargon, begins with the “why,” and makes use of metaphors wherever she will be able to. Typically she’ll even check her explanations out loud. If it sounds too formal or summary, she rewrites it.
The way it appears in apply
Karolina’s strategy got here to life lately when the staff started rethinking the Companions Portal. It was new territory, stuffed with unknowns.
“I wanted everybody to see the larger image,” she says. “So I created a persona — an actual, vivid character based mostly on our company companions. It had traits, frustrations, objectives, and habits. This straightforward but very highly effective instrument allowed the staff to know why some issues matter, what the actual issues are, and who is definitely going to make use of the options that we’re going to create.”
Abruptly, it turned much less in regards to the particular options, and extra about fixing issues for somebody the staff might truly think about. That shift modified all the pieces.
“As soon as understanding settles, you may really feel the power shift,” Karolina remembers. “The room lights up. Folks begin arising with concepts. The whole lot begins transferring sooner as a result of we’re all picturing the identical story.”
Inside readability, exterior outcomes
Karolina believes the way in which a staff talks a few function internally units the tone for the way prospects expertise it externally.
“If a staff can’t clarify an thought clearly to one another, there’s no probability it would make sense to prospects,” she says. “As soon as the interior story is obvious — the issue, the worth, and the end result — it turns into a lot simpler to show that into messaging, onboarding flows, or launch notes,” Karolina explains.
That alignment exhibits up in all places downstream. “Design communicates it higher. Advertising tells the precise story. Gross sales use the precise promoting factors. Help is aware of how one can clarify it. Even the product itself begins reflecting the precise intent.”
The problem, in fact, is figuring out how far to go. An excessive amount of element overwhelms, too little loses which means. However Karolina has a technique for that.
“I don’t take away complexity that issues, I simply layer it,” she explains. “Begin with the core worth: why would I exploit this? Then present the primary motion: how do I get began? And solely add depth when somebody’s prepared for it.”
This strategy is how Omnisend shapes each new function, whether or not it’s a small UX tweak or a giant, technically complicated launch.
The PM as storyteller
On the finish of the day, Karolina sees storytelling because the essence of the PM’s position.
“If the PM doesn’t set the narrative, another person will, and it is perhaps unsuitable, complicated, or diluted,” she says. “It’s our job to ensure the story is intentional, not unintentional.”
So what recommendation would she give to anybody making an attempt to clarify complicated matters higher?
“Make it clear to your self. Perceive your viewers. And discover a good metaphor, because it makes your story stick.”
Her closing line sums all of it up, half-joking and half completely severe:
“Inform your story earlier than confusion spreads, riot begins, and 5 new variations of the reality seem.”
Concerned with becoming a member of Omnisend? Take a look at our open positions right here and see how one can be a part of the staff!
