Another great question came in after my first post. LinkedIn Career Advicce is shaping up to be a great channel to share and exchange ideas.
The question came from a new PM for a popular content platform in Singapore. I’ve removed the employer in respect of her privacy.
Hi Ken, it was really an insightful read. Thank you for sharing! In the post, you mentioned about developing main skills and owning it. Coming from a non-technical background (I graduated with a Pharmacy degree, and landed a content marketing role), I find that I lack the technical skills many PMs out there have. I’m eager to build up my skillsets and have been exploring options such as learning html and sql.
As you came from a non-tech background as well, i’m curious — were there any technical skills you picked up along the way that you think could be suitable for someone new to learn? You mentioned learning UX in the post, so I may check that out too :)
Great question! A couple of points you’ve raised:
- The lack of technical skills and how to deal with it
- What technical skills to pick up
The Lack of Technical Skills
I used to feel this way, that it was hindering my ability to excel at the job. In fact it was an inferior complex. I can assure you this is common, and, later on as I started to realize, maybe even an advantage. Not “being technical” means you are more neutral and not so wedded to particular technical solutions.
This is where you need to know your strength/value and what you can help the team with. You are not doing your team any favor trying to decide what particular tech to use to improve page speed— leave that to the engineers.
BUT
- Your GA/analytics skills (picked up from when you were optimizing campaigns for certain content) tell you that certain pages appear to load a lot slower than the site’s average, in a particular region/country where your user base is growing, or where business wants to invest more in.
- Your can provide qualitative and quantitative research that readers probably prefer a fast-loading, minimal-ad reading experience, which leads to certain initiatives on the backlog.
- Your understanding of reading patterns, the type of content that appeals to the users, this year’s business focus etc. will help the team PRIORITIZE whether to work on optimizing page speed, improving the article recommendation, or redesigning components of the article template for better engagement.
Hypothetical example, but this is what I mean by knowing your key value/strength/skill and own it. Content marketing knowledge is a great foundation, build on that.
Now this is not to downplay the importance of “being technical” — ultimately not having a relevant skill for a job is bad. The real question here is how much technical do you need to be?
I’d say aim to be technically conversant. Your goal isn’t to be the next Google’s Jeff Dean, but to COMMUNICATE well with engineers. They are one of your stakeholders (just like sales, marketing etc.) and perhaps the most important one as you spend 60% — 70% of your time with them, and are also expected to LEAD.
What Technical Skills to Pick up
- Know what value you’re adding to the team
- Know that you need to be technically conversant
Any skills that help you get better at these are valuable.
- Learn all about the tech stack: what’s used for backend/frontend, where the servers are, what’s used for automation test, how’s the test coverage, etc. Just be curious about everything, you will be amazed just how much there’s for a simple thing like typing a url into a browser https://medium.com/@maneesha.wijesinghe1/what-happens-when-you-type-an-url-in-the-browser-and-press-enter-bb0aa2449c1a
- You have your devs, QAs, analysts etc. right next to you everyday. Learn from them. People love talking about what they do. One thing I’ve learned is never shy away from saying “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand” and ask people who know/understand explain it to you. Do your own research, and keep at it. Your co-workers are a great source of knowledge (be mindful of others’ time though).
I can’t tell you what tech/language to learn specifically — again you have to be selective about what can help you. Here are a few things I’ve picked up and found quite useful.
- SQL: beginner-friendly, great to get data for yourself. Check out https://www.datacamp.com/courses/intro-to-sql-for-data-science
- Python: I’m a noob and mainly use it to automate certain tasks or play around with APIs https://medium.com/@kentran27/simple-json-reader-to-check-app-store-reviews-bf5475fbeec
- I consider myself to be an advanced user of common analytics tools e.g. GA, Tableau
- I’m comfortable with a couple of wireframing/prototyping tools e.g. Balsamiq, Invision (no, I can’t produce high-fidelity UI designs and not investing there)
- I know basic html/css/js — but not investing there
The point is, as you can see, there are a countless number of things you can learn and if you try to do all, you will get overwhelmed very quickly. Don’t. Know that you need to be technically conversant but your role isn’t to be the next great engineer.
And most importantly, have fun learning. Yes you need to be selective but don’t hesitate to explore and experiment.
That’s a long response! Hope it helps. Feel free to reach out again if you need more clarifications on anything I’ve written here. Even better if you disagree as it would bring a different perspective to this discussion.
P/S:
A footnote on being non-technical:
- Airbnb co-founders were designers
- One of the greatest “product managers” of our time, Steve Jobs, wasn’t technical
