Want To Be a Product Manager in Tech? Study the Humanities.
Humanities and Technology
The humanities studies human society and culture. On the surface, the humanities couldn’t be further from the technology and business degrees that typically fill product managers’ resumes. But in reality, a humanities degree is just as valuable, if not more so, in preparing young minds for a career in product management. So what does studying human society and culture have to do with building technology products?
Uh, have you heard of Steve Jobs?!
Yes, to be accurate, Steve Jobs didn’t complete a college degree of any sort. However, he took a class in calligraphy, what may be defined as handwriting art. In his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech, Jobs said:
I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
The beauty of Apple products has set a standard for consumer technology, from the Mac to the iPod to the iPhone.
Now, not everyone has the natural brilliance of Steve Jobs. But any potential product manager deciding what to study in college can gain similar insights and experiences that are “beautiful, historical, and artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture.” Such is the value of the humanities.
Understanding (Irrational) Humans
Studying the humanities will give you a variety of perspectives on how humans think, why humans behave the way they do, what makes them tick, their motivations, frustrations, dreams. You will gain insight into why humans do what they do.
You will learn quickly that humans are irrational, fickle creatures. This means that the problems, challenges, and desire for progress that a human has in any given context may have several solutions or paths forward. Thus, the thinking gained in the humanities lends itself well to being able to think about and solve problems with multiple solutions, or even in cases where the problem may not be concretely defined. Think of how many ways humans can interpret poetry or art, versus how many ways someone will answer the equation 2+2.
All of this is relevant when trying to discover customer needs or problems or the job to be done. The work of a product manager is the work of discovery: discovering the underlying, motivating need and the potential product to meet the need. Though a full discussion can’t be had here, I would be remiss not to mention the field of human-centered design, and its influence on the products we make. This field has placed humans at the center of our product work, and understanding humans as the key to building useful, valuable products.
Communication: Speak Different Languages
Marty Cagan artfully describes a typical week in the life a product manager. This week includes discussions with legal counsel, sales, marketing, finance, industry analysts, business development, product marketing, technology leadership, the CEO, data analyst, customer success teams, and the CISO. The purposes of these discussions range from listening to the stakeholder, negotiating requirements, evangelizing the product, and presenting evidence.
A product manager needs to speak the various languages used in each of these contexts. Skilled communication in the proper language can mean life or death for a product. Product managers need to speak differently with the CEO than with a developer, marketer, or customer. Each context demands a different language, each of which the product manager needs to be fluent in.
A PM doesn’t need to be a subject-matter expert in all these fields. But the successful PM can understand and clearly communicate in the appropriate language for the context.
This is a skill learned in the humanities. Language has long been at the center of the study of humans and their culture. A PM who is a student of the humanities will have an awareness and appreciation for the different languages and communication patterns that are needed in the day-to-day tasks, and assortment of stakeholder conversations, of product management
Communication: Describe the Future and Understand the Past
As a creator of technology products, product managers are building the future. The iPhone was once the unimaginable future. Self-driving cars are on the horizon. Vacations on Mars or the bottom of the ocean may be the privilege of our grandchildren. A product manager’s job is to describe the future in such a vivid and tangible way that your team, customers, and business will rally in building that future. Describing the future requires compelling and persuasive storytelling. You could use words (user or jobs stories) or visual art (prototypes and whiteboard drawings), but you are communicating a story about the future. Humans love stories. Knowing how to craft a compelling story of the future is crucial to your role as a PM. Story crafting is at the heart of the humanities.
But describing the future also requires a solid understanding of the past. If I had no understanding of the past (or present), and I told you: “We’re going to build the future of friendship. Because of our app, in the future, friends will be able to connect with one another over the Internet. They can share photos and videos — and look at each other’s timelines. We’ll also help them create events and invite their friends to come.” You’ll probably kick me out the door and then check your phone for Facebook notifications. If I know nothing of the past, how can I describe the future? Again, you don’t need to be an academic historian. But some knowledge of human history, or how and why society has evolved to be what it is today, helps product managers describe the future, and how their products will make it.
Influence: You are the CEO
Let’s return to Marty Cagan’s article “CEO of the Product Revisited.” This analogy has been a matter of debate for several years. On one side, it is argued that the PM is not the CEO, because she doesn’t have formal hiring, firing or prioritizing authority over the members of the team. This is true. But I believe it also missed the bigger picture of the role of CEO.
The CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company. The PM is responsible for the success or failure of the product. However, neither CEO or PM goes it alone. Each role is inherently a leadership position. And in both bases, critical to leadership is persuasion and influence. A PM can’t fire a wayward developer. But a great PM can inspire, influence, and persuade a wayward developer to align with a product vision.
If a PM wants to learn the skill of inspiring, influencing, and persuading team members for whom they have no formal authority, then what better way to learn about how historical leaders, authors, poets, artists, thinkers, philosophers, and theologians have inspired, influenced, and persuaded millions of humans for hundreds of years? Men and women from all cultures and backgrounds have influenced humanity in remarkable ways, some good and some evil. (To be clear, I’m not advocating for manipulating or brainwashing. I’m assuming that your intentions are to help other human beings, or as Google’s parent company Alphabet says in its code of conduct: “don’t be evil.”)
How do persuasive ideas sweep through our culture? How do ideas influence humans to build the future? What timeless ideas has humanity discovered that influence the way we think about humans and the products that serve them? These are valuable questions for a PM to consider, as the answers influence the product decisions that a PM makes every day. Having some understanding of the ideas that have influenced humanity, and how to communicate them, can help a PM influence and persuade their teams, customers, and stakeholders.
Critical Thinking
Employers are constantly looking for smart people who can think critically. Critical thinking is crucial in the world of product management. Product management is the oxymoronic mix of constantly evangelizing your product while simultaneously tearing it apart and making better. “Strong opinions, loosely held” is the idea here.
The humanities provide an excellent intellectual playground for potential product managers to hone the skill of critical thinking. Asking questions, particularly the questions that are hard to answer or no one wants to discuss, is encouraged. When different information is discovered, different interpretations or solutions can be explored, that lead to different conclusions. The debate the comes from framing information in a different light is the bread and butter of daily product management. Remember: communication and negotiation.
Creativity
Along with critical thinking and questioning everything comes creativity. I don’t mean creativity as the sudden flash of brilliance. I mean the creative mastery that Bruce Nussbaum discusses in his book Creative Intelligence. He outlines five competencies of creativity: Knowledge Mining, Framing, Playing, Making, and Pivoting.
Creativity is the essence of the humanities. What have humans created? What art, stories, institutions, philosophies, languages have we created to express and define ourselves? One may even say that to study the humanities is to study human creativity.
Product managers must learn to rely on creativity. Not only their own creative questions, insights, or solutions — but also the creativity of their team. Designers and developers each bring their own creativity to the solution. A great product manager has learned to harness collective creativity.
Conclusion
If a potential product manager wants to make products and technology that improve human society and culture, an excellent place to start is a deep understanding of human society and culture, or rather, a deep understanding of humans. Only with this deep understanding can product managers create technology and products that led to a better future for the billions of humans around the world.
