Here's how you can foster clear communication between product managers and engineers.

Be clear and concise in your project/product information and acceptance criteria. What is the benefit you are looking for? What is the end goal and ROI? Vision and product plans are great but, at the end of the day what do you need/want it to do? You can save a lot time and effort needed to address communication problems by clarifying these points when you interact with any engineering team. Trust your teams to know what is needed to make it happen and let them manage the build process.

1) Collaboration on Solutions: Encouraging joint problem-solving sessions where product managers and engineers can brainstorm and find solutions. So, when it's documented, everyone is on the same page.

Project Management Tools: Tools like Jira, Trello, or Asana to track progress and manage tasks. Documentation Tools: Platforms like Confluence or Notion for sharing and maintaining documentation.

Few things that worked/works for me. - Explain the what & why of the feature/function and the impact it is going to have on the end user. - Seek input from personnel at engineering on how things can be made better. - Collaborate effectively, if things can clarified and translated via emails then dont setup daily meetings. - Do not leave room for assumptions. If things are not clear then make sure everyone in the email/meeting is aligned. It's a team effort

Having worked both on the engineering department and product department, one thing for sure is - While product managers write in depth documentation in the PRDs, developers, more often than not, feel that reading the documentation is burdensome. In addition to the PRDs, a 'Handoff meeting' between the product and development teams during which the concerned product managers explains and hands off the product to the respective developers, helps both the teams align their goals. Furthermore, the responsibility of a product manager doesn't end with the handoff. Regular meetings to understand the progress of development can help identify if the development is going off the rails.

What works for some may not work for others - I have used a combination of informal and formal meetings to keep abreast of progress and any issues. With remote work it makes it harder, so the informal chats can be done by scheduling or chatting by slack, teams, etc.

A chave para esclarecer a linguagem entre PMs e engenheiros é a comunicação clara e a colaboração contínua que promovam o entendimento mútuo. Para isso é importante promover reuniões regulares e estruturadas para planejar o projeto, acompanhar a evolução e rever o que funcionou e o que precisa ser melhorado (retrospectiva), promovendo assim uma cultura de aprendizado contínuo. Manter documentado o projeto, definindo um glossário de termos comuns e explicações para jargões ou termos técnicos. Além disso é importante que os PMs escrevam user stories do ponto de vista do usuário, para ajudar os engenheiros a entenderem o propósito de cada funcionalidade, e critérios de aceite bem detalhados para considerar a funcionalidade como completa.

Using metrics where possible, and common agile definitions of words removes the risk of miscommunication. For example a "small" task for some people may mean 1 hour for others it could mean a day, however if you use an agreed rating system such as Fibonacci storey points, everyone is aligned. Another example if a user story is "blocked", depending on the person, could mean awaiting 3rd party, dont have environment available, awaiting bug triage, plus many other possibilities. Product & Tech both need to ensure they are clear and specific when talking to each other

I'd share a non-obvious tip: Never use tech jargon in communication (it's more to the engineers than to managers). I'd share a non-obvious tip: Don't use tech jargon. Imagine explaining your idea to a five-year-old. Not to dumb it down, but to make it clear. How would you describe a complex idea so a kid gets it right away? Also, make sure you're being precise with them - state the date, the results and solution. For example, "I suggest we implement ABC solution. It'll take 10 days, cut our costs by XYZ each month, and boost our revenue by DEF%." Use simple, direct language. Focus on what matters to them—like saving money and solving problems. Simple. Clear. Effective✨

Setting common rules to regulate way of working, collaborating in team is very important. We are different people with different point of view so it is very easy to occur gaps between product managers and engineers. They can be rules that define what matters Product managers will be the final decision maker and what matters should be taken care by engineer. When changes from product managers need to be informed to engineers and when engineers should raise warning about risks in technical perspectives. What should be declared or announced in team. And so on. They can reduces problems or conflicts made by "I thought" reasons