Growing Into Public Speaking
Start with tiny friendly audiences, grow the room, and mine feedback from strangers and peers
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 82%
A confidence-building progression for anxious speakers: begin in front of very small, friendly audiences, expand the audience over time, and deliberately collect feedback from both peers (harsh, accurate) and strangers (polite, gap-spotting). Includes in-the-moment nerve techniques.
Origin
Petra Wille's personal method, developed from being 'really bad' at public speaking herself — starting with a five-minute company all-hands update and progressing through local product meetups.
Core principles
- 01Start small and grow the audience over time rather than jumping onto a big stage
- 02Peers give harsher, more useful critique; strangers are polite but spot gaps in your storytelling
- 03Keep a friendly, respected face in the front row for reassurance
- 04Being able to speak is not enough — you must actually get your point across
How to run it
- 1
Speak to a tiny friendly audience
Begin with five-to-ten people you know — your team, or a company all-hands where you give a brief update.
Pro tip A short, low-stakes slot (a five-minute update) is enough to start building the muscle.
- 2
Grow the audience via friendly communities
Move to local product meetups (e.g. Product Tanks) with ~30 friendly attendees, then progressively larger rooms.
Pro tip Give talks in summer or quieter periods when fewer people attend, to grow at a comfortable pace.
- 3
Harvest feedback from peers and strangers
Seek feedback after every talk. Peers give the harsher, more accurate critique; strangers who approach you afterward are polite but reveal where your storytelling has gaps.
Pro tip Plant a trusted friendly soul in the front row you know will give you honest feedback later.
- 4
Prime your energy just before going on
Backstage or in the bathroom, use a power move — the Superman pose (standing tall, looking up) or lightly beating your chest (the 'gorilla' tap) to raise your energy level.
Pro tip Do it out of sight so the audience doesn't see; then find friendly faces in the front row.
Watch out Mind what you're wearing — if it's noisy, people may see or hear the chest-tap before you enter.
In the wild
Petra recounted her first time speaking, a five-minute update on the last two weeks' work in front of ~90 people at a company all-hands, which 'freaked her out' — the starting point from which she built up through friendly meetups.
→ By starting small and growing the room, she reached a level where public speaking, while still not something she loves, became a manageable part of her work.
Common mistakes
Speaking without landing your point
Many people do public speaking but never get their point across, so the effort is wasted. Both delivery and a clear point are required to make speaking career-advancing.
Debuting on a big unfamiliar stage
Jumping straight to a large audience amplifies fear and offers no safe feedback loop. Start with five-to-ten friendly people and grow the room gradually instead.
Is it for you?
Best for
PMs and leaders who get nervous speaking publicly and want a low-risk path to competence, especially where promotion depends on it
Not ideal for
Roles where storytelling can be fully compensated by the wider team and public speaking isn't tied to advancement
From the transcript
“the easiest way is to get in front of really small and super friendly audiences”
“product tanks for example this local product Community meetups that totally helped me”
“the peers tend to give you the harsher critique so to say where the strangers are more polite”
“it's either the Superman pose”
“a lot of people do public speaking but they never bring their point across”
From the episode
How to be the best coach to product people
Petra Wille (Strong Product People)