A product manager is responsible for everything from strategy to execution, so that's why it's important for a product manager to have product manager skills—both technical skills and soft skills—to be successful.
The goal for this blog is to help a product manager in two ways:
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the skills that make a great product manager will vary from business to business and product to product.
So, if you're in a product management role and looking to sharpen your product manager skills, read our blog for actionable advice for how to be a great product manager or product marketing manager!
Strategy and strategic thinking is the product manager’s primary job responsibility. That is the core of product management.
A product manager has to balance market research, customer needs, business goals and more while working on product development.
This means being able to keep an eye on long-term goals while also focusing on the day-to-day work that needs to be done is critical for product managers.
That's why strategic thinking is so critical.
A product manager acts as product advocate to understand, prioritize and solve customer problems.
A product manager needs to have a deep understanding of their customers and their needs in order to provide (or help provide) excellent customer service.
Product managers need to be able to constantly think about how the product can meet those needs and exceed customer expectations.
Product managers need product empathy to really understand what their customers want and how they feel about an issue before coming up with product requirements.
A customer-centric product manager constantly runs product experiments in order to improve product development and product decisions. They balance meeting business needs, while still keeping a customer-first perspective in product management.
The latter question can lead to innovative ideas that can give you a competitive edge.
A product vision is a high-level statement of what a product should achieve and how it should do it.
It encapsulates the product manager’s idea of what they want their product to become and can help guide decision making.
A product manager's product vision can come from many things - product manager intuition, customer feedback, or product research.
There are no hard and fast rules for how to create a product vision because it’s highly context-dependent. However, here are some things product managers need to consider when developing product visions:
A product manager doesn’t just have to be a great executor - they also need to communicate product ideas effectively in order to move projects along.
This is where project management soft skills, like communication skills come in handy, as they help product managers explain their point persuasively and get people excited about their product ideas.
In fact, there are many types of communication that product managers need to do on a daily basis: from writing detailed requirements documents to pitching their product ideas at board meetings, explaining concepts to engineering teams or drawing wireframes for designers.
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Product managers should be able to use their communication skills to explain product requirements and product ideas with clarity and conviction.
Product managers need to collaborate with product designers as part of their product development process. In order for the product design team to deliver pixel-perfect designs, product managers have to help them understand what they want from users by writing detailed product specifications.
Product managers should not only be great at being able write good user stories but they also need empathy for their product designer’s craft.
This means a product manager should understand that product design is iterative and experimental in nature, where multiple ideas are tried until a winner is found.
It can take time before a final decision on something as simple as button color or wording is reached - so being patient as a product manager with product designers is crucial.
User feedback is essential for product managers to help them build the product right, but product managers often undervalue product feedback from engineering teams.
Engineers know which features are easy and hard to build - so listening to their product requirements helps product managers prioritize what's most important to work on next.
Product managers should have solid soft skills, primarily in regards to being able to prioritize product development and effectively communicate that prioritization with stakeholders.
A product manager needs to be decisive and defend their decisions against other stakeholders who may not understand why a decision was made.
This requires good sense of judgement as well as effective problem-solving skills.
A product manager needs to have a good understanding of product development process, from understanding requirements to task management and managing engineers in order to launch a product.
They should be able to understand the biggest challenges and issues of product management and think of ways to improve them—as well as how to break each piece down into managable tasks and to-dos for the individuals on their team.
Not only do they have to lead product development but they also need to guide the product design team towards building a better product.
I am sure you’ve heard of the famous “growth mindset” statement many times before:
The growth mindset is a form of strategic thinking that is essential for product managers as they are constantly learning and need to be able to reflect on their own work to see how they can improve.
In order to become a great product management leader, it is important to have a growth mindset and use strategic thinking to be open to continuously learning new skills and evolving with the ever-changing product landscape.
To become a successful product manager, constant learning is crucial.
A successful product manager is always working hard to develop their product management skills by attending product courses and meetups, reading product design books and blogs, participating in product communities and much more.
Many product managers learn from each other and actively share product knowledge to help the product community evolve.
Great product managers always seek opportunities for improvement in themselves and also in product development and design processes and product management, product managers can also learn from product leaders about what makes a product manager great.
A product management leader is someone who can work with different stakeholders to develop a product that meets the needs of the organization and its users.
They should be able to write product requirements clearly, explain product ideas convincingly and be a great partner to product designers.
They also need to be able to prioritize well, manage stakeholder expectations and have strong product management skills. Lastly, they should have a growth mindset in order to continuously learn and improve.
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