How to Assess Product Management Skills and Competencies?

7 min readJun 8, 2019

Pervasive Gap in Product Management Talent

Many CEOs and technology leaders believe that product managers need to be among the strongest talent in the company because innovative products provide competitive advantage and drive future growth. Product managers serve to synchronize the work of others across different functions to ensure the right products get planned, built, and delivered to customers. Ultimately, product managers are responsible and accountable for the success of the product.¹

Paradoxically, a recent study by Mckinsey reveals that the talent-management practices associated with the product management function are surprisingly underdeveloped. There is a pervasive gap across the tech industry.²

“Fewer than half of the product managers feel prepared to play the roles expected of them or grow into future product leaders.” (Mckinsey & Company, 2018)²

Product Managers come into the role from a variety of backgrounds with varying knowledge, experience, and skills. They are often expected to pick up whatever is required to get things done quickly. The scary truth is that 57.2% of product managers have not received any formal training to learn how to do their job.³ In a 2015 survey of 900 product managers and product leaders, 280 Group found that the skill levels of the product management function vary greatly. More than half of the respondents indicated that the skill level of their product managers was average or below.⁴

Why does this happen? One reason is that product management is a relatively new discipline, and the role is subject to many interpretations. It can prove incredibly difficult to pin down the behaviors, mindsets, and skills that product managers need to demonstrate in their work. As a result, product managers are often being described as a T-shaped person with deep technical domain knowledge and broad business skills, or a hybrid of technologist, business analyst, and UX designer. Unfortunately, neither description provides much guidance as to what exactly product managers are supposed to do to be successful in their day-to-day job.

Whether you aspire to be a great product manager or want to build a strong product team, without knowing which skills are essential for the role, how can you improve performance and become good at what you do? To address the product management talent dilemma, we must first have a clear understanding of the core competencies required to perform the role. This article provides three tools that I find particularly useful for assessing product management skills and competencies systematically. I will give a brief description of each framework and show you how to use it in practice.

3 Tools for Assessing Product Management Competencies

1. SVPG Competencies Assessment and Coaching Tool

Marty Cagan, the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG), has developed an assessment and coaching tool for product management based on knowledge, techniques, and skills used by the best product teams at leading tech companies in the world.

What I like about this tool is that it boils down product management competencies into three simple pillars: product, process, and people (Figure 1). It provides a structured approach for ongoing product management skills assessment and development. The purpose is to evaluate a product manager’s current level of competence along each of several important criteria, and then compare that with what is required for the product team and company to identify areas with the most significant gaps.⁵

Marty recommends using two ratings for each competency on a scale of 0–10. The first rating is an assessment of where the product manager needs to be in this competency (i.e., how important it is), and the second rating is an assessment of where the product manager currently performs on this scale (i.e., his or her ability).⁵

2. Sequent Product Management Acumen Assessment Framework

Steven Haines from Sequent Learning Network has created a comprehensive framework for product management assessment.

This tool assesses the attributes associated with product management acumen, which is defined as the ability to grasp every aspect of a product’s business completely. These attributes are organized into six clusters: market and product, mindset, product management activities, performance and results, individuality and efficiency, and communication and interpersonal skills (Figure 2).⁶

You can use the Product Management Acumen Assessment to evaluate each item across the six attribute clusters and get a sense of where you are in terms of skills and behaviors that are expected of product managers. A 4-point rating scale can be used to identify how frequent you use the skills in each area, where 1 (limited) means that you haven’t had many opportunities to focus on this skill or apply it on the job, and 4 (consistent) represents that you effectively and consistently use this skill and are able to coach others.⁶

A big bonus of this framework is that you can take the assessment online at https://survey.sequentlearning.com/s3/PMAcumen. You will be asked to rate yourself on each of the six dimensions associated with product acumen. As soon as you are done, you will get a report that shows your overall score.

3. 280 Group Product Management Skills Assessment Tool

Another way to evaluate product management skills is by using the tool developed by 280 Group (Figure 3). It involves 74 questions, designed to measure 15 skill sets that are essential for product managers. For each question, a scale of 1 to 10 is used to assess the level of proficiency.

Based on this tool, 280 Group conducted a comprehensive survey in 2018 to better understand the skill levels of 1650 product managers from over 20 industries around the globe. This survey found that the average skill level across all 15 dimensions is 6.6.

If you want to see how you measure up against the industry average and identify your strengths and weaknesses, you can take the assessment online at https://pm.280group.com/product-management-skills-assessment/. A personalized report will be sent to you with specific comments for each of the 15 key skill sets.

How to Use These Tools?

Each of the tools described above provides a structured, data-driven approach to assess core product management competencies. Here are some ways you can put them into action.

For Product Managers: Review Skills to Develop or Improve

If you are a product manager, the competency assessment puts your skills and experience into perspective and helps you prioritize efforts. It allows you to identify strengths and pinpoint the specific areas which you should focus on. You can then map out a personal development plan with your manager to address any gaps or to further improve particular competencies.

For Hiring Managers: Recruit and Select Product Managers

By gaining a deep understanding of the knowledge and skills associated with high-performing product managers, hiring managers can better define the product manager role and the competencies they need based on the type of product, industry, stage, and company culture. This brings more objectivity into the recruitment process and helps evaluate and select suitable candidates.

For HR Professionals: Develop Talent Management Programs

Developing core competencies will be an ongoing activity throughout a product manager’s career. Although some competencies can be taught in the classroom, most are developed on the job with good role models, appropriate training, project-based learning, and effective coaching. It is easier to define effective training and talent management programs required to bring your product management organization to the next level if you have a solid understanding of the core competencies.

For Product Leaders: Use for Coaching and Team Development

If you are in a position to manage or coach product managers, you can use ongoing competencies assessment and development to build a high-performing product team. Knowing your team’s strengths and most significant gaps allow you to create more targeted development programs for product managers. You can help individuals cultivate a specific set of competencies and grow professionally through coaching, training, or specific projects.

Conclusion

Product Management is a demanding discipline because it requires a broad set of skills that often take years to cultivate. The core competencies are the baseline for any product manager. However, the best product managers continue to hone these skills over years of continuous learning, problem-solving, experimentation, and reflection based on customer feedback.

“The top 10% of product managers excel at a few things. The top 1% excel at most or all of them.” (Ian McAllister, Director of Amazon Day and former Director of Product at Airbnb)⁷