My primary belief is that being a product person is a lifestyle not a job. That said, the list below includes the key skills I have learned over time and which I believe are necessary to succeed in product management.
I love this blurb: "A product manager is a problem solver, a mediator, and a translator. As is said about Product Managers – they are like the conductor in an orchestra: while they are neither musicians, nor composers, they understand the audience and how best the orchestra can pull it off. They know how it’s sounds, and can communicate that effectively across a wide range of musicians. The result – a beautiful concerto."
- Translate vision for product into what actually gets built.
- Know the Customer. It is imperative to spend a good amount of time talking to consumers, testing new products/ features with consumers and understanding how my product is perceived (and compares to the competition). This will help validate a product vision and chosen direction. I believe building great products is all about aggregating and solving customer issues, unstated or stated, through product iteration. I believe you should start with the customer, the customer's problems that the product is looking to solve, and work backwards. Furthermore, mastering the ability to identify problems users may not even realize they have (think disruptive technologies and services that open new lines of business or markets). Before launching a product I like getting a 'yes' answer to the following two questions: (a) will this product/feature address current frustration that you have and (b) could *a lot* of people feel the same way?
- Collaborate. At the end of the day, product people don't actually ship anything. Nearly all of the final work is done by others. So they are completely reliant on them to build the product. How well they work with these folks (who are often of very different personality types) and establish trust; how well they represent the hive-mind of the team's ideas of the product will go a long way to the end product. I would argue that the best product managers are the ones who can connect to the very best creators and help bring about the best products, and communicate that to the outside world. Ask their engineers/developers:"What do you recommend?" Be the bridge between different layers of the organization. Help everyone get to know what others do and you'll be seen as the most significant player.
- Live and breathe User Experience. I am constantly asking: what would the user do? It is critical to be effective at identifying and solving real user problems that drive value for the business based on market research and user feedback. I try to think about the user in every scenario - how they would think about x feature, how they would react to y design. You don't have to be a designer, but you should appreciate great design and be able to distinguish it from good design. You should also be able to articulate the difference to your design counterparts, or at least articulate directions to pursue to go from good to great.
- Get things done. While there is the sexy part of strategic analysis and market sizing there is the day to day part of constantly moving forward to get from plan to profit. Not waiting for direction from management, but having the confidence and consumer understanding to be innovative and constantly test new ideas. Equally, capable of saying 'no' when they feel an idea or a product/feature is a distraction or won't add value. ability to dive deep when necessary. Going through the product development cycle, when the going gets tough, diving in & helping keep things afloat, or push out fixes as are necessary. Do whatever is necessary to ship. Recognize no specific bounds to the scope of the role. As necessary, recruit, produce buttons, do bizdev, escalate, tussle with internal counsel, etc..
- Communicate. Whether it's talking to target customers, business stakeholders, designers or developers; you need to be able to successfully convey a product vision and strategy. This doesn't mean that you have to be a technical or UX expert, but you have the necessary understanding to understand good design or to identify any technical viability issues. You should strive to be the best communicator, up and down an org, inside and out of it. Articulate that vision so that everyone -- upward, sideways & downward -- buys into it. Make a case that is impossible to refute or ignore. Use data appropriately, when available, but also tap into other biases, beliefs, and triggers that can convince the powers that be to part with headcount, money, or other resources and then get out of the way.
- Listen. Have the ability to know how to listen and to understand that developing/managing a great product is not about you. Whether it's listening to consumers, to your developers or business stakeholders, a seasoned product manager will continuously collate and weigh opinions and filter them into his/her product decisions or strategy. You listen and know what audiences need to be served for the product to succeed. It's critically important to be constantly changing product vision or strategy in response to feedback from users/customers, "powers that be," designers, developers.This doesn't mean you're doing what they say but that you are listening to the concern hidden in their ideas and figuring out the most effective way to address it. You need to deliberately develop active listening skills so that your product becomes more about your users than about you.
- Wear many hats. Have the ability to do it all-- gracefully and seamlessly. Guide the content direction, UI, and development-- while also wearing business development, product marketing, etc hats. Ability to think broad AND narrow-- understand and communicate how the product vision ties into the company (and beyond) vision. Have hands in all areas to make the product and team the best it can be.
- Act as a leader. Every where and in every moment. Make everyone around you better though this leadership. Inspire people around you to think bigger, and push boundaries.
- Think strategically. Create a large vision - one that is larger than the product itself. Then taking an intricate vision, simplifying it and sharing it in a way that it makes it easy for people to get it. Thinking won't be constrained by the resources available today or today's market environment. Describe large disruptive opportunities, and develop concrete plans for how to take advantage of them. Determine the problems your product is trying to solve and the right market fit for your company, then communicate the strategy inside and outside the company for buy-in and constructive feedback. Strategic thinking starts with asking the right questions. It is about understanding current market, where it is going, competition, go to market, etc to define the right product and the roadmap. Netting it out, it is about making informed choices.
- Be a diplomat. Act as traffic control for all stakeholders that want to have input (and protect engineers so they can do their job) - serve as glue between customer and engineers. Master the ability to talk to different audiences (from the high level discussions with the top management to very in-deep discussion with support).
- Prioritize. Product managers constantly get feature requests: customers ask for features, colleagues have suggestions, competitors just launched exciting features, the best (and sometimes the worst) requests are from CEO/founders who have strong opinions. However, you cannot and should not build all of the requested features immediately, hence aligning company priorities and product strategy is critically important. Since it is often impossible to argue why Feature A is more important than Feature B when there is no statistical evidence, set up a prioritization framework (i.e. criteria and process) and get feedback from all relevant parties before your first prioritization meeting. You can always adjust your prioritization framework as you learn what works and what doesn’t, but not as part of any prioritization meeting.