In this article I will cover what it takes to become a successful product manager. We live in an age of product driven organizations and product management jobs are hotter than ever! Product managers play a crucial role in owning the product lines from early days to market launch and beyond. In such organizations, product managers have such importance and glamour that almost everyone wants to become one… but how?
This article covers:
– What qualities/capabilities you should have to consider even stepping into product management
I will be sharing my point of view on this based on my own journey in product management. I started a company at zero and grew it to 9 figures of revenue in +5 years. You can read more about me here.
This article does NOT cover:
- What product management is: I covered in another article and video that you can read here and watch below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Q2sUkr40w
Let’s get started!
4 Qualities that a successful product manager MUST have:
Let me be clear, this is what I look for when hiring our product managers. The good news is that you can acquire any of these skills. All of them can be taught. What you should ask yourself after reading this is- does this inspire you? Do you want to dig deeper into these topics? If the answer is yes, that’s a great sign. If the answer is no, you should look into another line of work.
1 – Inventive Mindset:
In the dynamic realm of product management, the first and most important skill is to have an inventive mind. The definition of inventive mind varies from person to person but I define it as this-
– Proactive problem solving mindset: There are two categories of product managers; proactive ones and reactive ones. The reactive ones must be coached to be proactive or be removed from product organizations. Being proactive as a product manager is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor. You should be proactive in seeing product problems. The eyes of the product managers should be equipped with what I call a pain finder. Product managers should be able to see pains before customers even notice that what they are going through is pain. They should find patterns of customer issues and prioritize what pain to relieve.
Like a caring parent who is relentless in improving areas where their kids struggle. Product managers should constantly question every bit of a product’s features, pains, UX flow, etc to be able to suggest how they improve the products. This is discussed in length in this article.
– Ability to come up with creative solutions: Once the product managers come up with the right pains to relieve, they should also play an active role in solving those and coming up with creative solutions. This is where people assume they are not creative people and think their role has come to an end. This is WRONG and this way of thinking should be stopped. Being creative is absolutely an acquired skill. No one is born creative. Some people have more natural talent for it so they have an easier time being creative, but it’s like a muscle you need to work out, everyone has the creative muscle. You can be creative at any time and age in your career. You just have to have the right mindset, be around people who are creative, and come up with a few solutions.
I explained the inventive mindset skill in detail in this article.
This is where product managers with engineering backgrounds excel. They are usually the ones with the best inventive and problem solving mindset.
2 – Good Taste
This might be surprising for you to see as a skill/quality for product managers but it’s a reality. Product Managers are similar to interior designers or architects. If an architect or designer doesn’t have good taste, they will design houses that are not the best looking ones. Taste is vital when developing products. A product manager who has good taste looks for details that make a product function better or the little details that make a product look better. They are unhappy with a lack of aesthetics in products and they strive to keep things tight. Finesse in form and function, to how a product ages, to how a product stays timeless, good taste plays a big part in all of these. Companies place designers on teams to ensure the product they create both looks and works flawlessly but the project manager having good taste helps the process immensely.
When hiring product managers, we even pay attention to how well the product managers dress, is there harmony in their clothing? Do they have finesse in their style? These things have a direct correlation with how detail oriented the person is and how good the final product will look and feel.
Another aspect of taste is the ability to imagine how other people experience your products. This goes beyond the look and feel of products. Good product managers imagine even the environment that the product will be used in and when prioritizing features they ensure those factors are taken into account. This is where product managers with a design background excel. They are usually the ones with the best eyes for form and function.
3- Business Skills:
I have seen many product managers who are very good at finding gaps, coming up with creative solutions, and are masters of execution in the product environment. They are good and very essential for an organization’s success but not enough. The quality that propels product managers to top of their game and invincible in organizations is having a business mindset. Product managers who understand this and have a business mindset can grow immensely in organizations and help companies to be very successful.
Product managers with a business mindset are the ones that understand the value of every single feature or product they are developing. They understand how to price features and products. They can change priorities based on what makes the maximum revenue for a product and what’s missing that’s making customers go to other products rather than their own. This is something that is not natural in many people and it should be taught by mentorship and exposure to product managers who have such skills. This specific quality of product managers really manifests itself when a PM makes a decision to add one small feature that makes a product sell.
Example:
Changing the direction of Apple Watch to healthcare and fitness opened up a whole new world of markets for Apple. Features like Move or Exercise rings, heart rate monitor, blood oxygen monitor- These are all the ones that made the Apple Watch more relevant and brought a wider number of customers to this product. Apple took this to the next level by introducing the Ultra series that is more tailored to the people who are interested in athletics, wellness and sports.
Read more about having commercial mindset in this article.
4-Execution Mindset
Last but not least, the execution mindset. This is the most daunting task, because without it, you’re just daydreaming. I wrote a longer article on this topic here.
To be a successful Product Manager, you have to be GREAT at execution. You have to be able to get things done. In my company, we put Product Managers in charge of execution. We train them to be good at execution, follow-up, and of course solving problems that come up along the way. The path of developing a product is so bumpy, so full of technical problems that require compromise and creative solutions. You are also fighting with lack of resources, conservative engineers, and competing priorities. As the product manager you have to stand up for your customers, advocate, pound tables. Be abrasive when necessary but push products forward. It gets tougher when it’s closer to the finish line, when everyone is nervous to launch products, the fear of uncertainty discourages people and this can all lead to people losing their motivation and excitement for the product.
There is only one secret to pass this stage: have conviction in your invention and push through. You won’t survive in our company if you can’t execute. You can’t succeed in any company if you don’t bring the product to the finish line and launch.
Here are some examples of pushback to finish development and launch when making products:
- “The product is not ready”: This usually arises from fear of uncertainty or by perfectionists. → Solution: Keep an open mind and argue. If it’s legitimate, listen. From my experience, it’s mostly fear. Explain what you have is good enough. Back it up with customer testing data.
- “We don’t have the bandwidth to launch it”: This usually arises from commercial teams. → Solution: They might be right. Explain how your product adds to revenue or customer retention, or acquisition. Again, keep an open mind and fight.
- “The existing product is performing, and customers are happy”: This usually arises from the human tendency not to change something unnecessarily. Also, we tend to be complacent. In the product context, launching new products and features is taxing on teams. Also, there is uncertainty if the new product is unproven. If you have done roles number 1 and 2 right, you have a pretty good explanation. I get this pushback a lot when I build a product or feature to improve my own product’s performance, not necessarily from competitors. My answer is if I don’t challenge myself, my competitors will. Then we become reactive.
Remember, when in doubt, launch!
That sums it up 🙂
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