Check out my other post to learn more about my second internship at LogDNA!
The debate surrounding the definition of product management is not new. It seems everyone in the tech industry has a different opinion and even people outside of tech have their own idea of product management, which more often than not is a lack thereof. Why is the concept of product management so challenging for people to grasp? Product management is not quantum mechanics or chemical engineering, and the fanciest tool that product managers most often use is probably good ole’ Google docs. Yet, there is something innately mysterious about product management that prevents a definite explanation from being created.
This mystery surrounding what product managers do is actually an integral part of product management. By not being definable, product management can transform into whatever a company needs. From tech giants to rising startups, product management is uniquely suited to each company environment. That is why you can have a product manager who performs quantum physics — if that is what a company needs product management to do, then the product managers will do it (or at least try their best)!
During this past summer, I set out to learn more about the mystery of product management as a product management intern at LogDNA, a cloud-based log management startup in Silicon Valley. Although there is no single perfect type of product management, I believe my time at LogDNA helped me to observe and identify some key skills that can be useful for product managers everywhere.
Product managers need to master more than just direct communication.
Most product managers will probably spend 90% of their typical workday just communicating with other people, whether it’s in meetings, email, or Slack. Therefore, being able to successfully communicate with other people across a variety of platforms is a necessary skill for any and all product managers. How can you judge if a product manager is a good communicator or not? The concept of “good communication” in and of itself is oftentimes vague, but luckily there are two definite types of communication that product managers should master — direct and indirect communication.
Everyone wants or is at least told, to be good at direct communication. That’s why parents repeat words to their babies, why children are taught proper grammar, and why teenagers are given essay after essay to write in high school English class. Direct communication involves successfully sharing your thoughts with another person or group of people while making sure they actually understand what you are talking about. Most product managers are pretty good at direct communication because it is a foundational requirement of product management, no matter what company they are at or who they are working with. They write PRDs, give presentations, and meet with probably just about everyone in the company on any given day, which gives them plenty of practice with direct communication.
Indirect communication is a bit more nuanced. As I have observed here at LogDNA, indirect communication involves product managers anticipating the needs of their team and making sure the proper resources are in place to help. Whether it’s collecting information you think your team may need for a project or being proactive and doing some work before your team member asks you to, good product managers can and should indirectly communicate their support. That being said, a good product manager doesn’t go overboard and do unnecessary work, she or he are merely paying attention to the needs of the team and figuring out how to best support them.
Product managers should seek the truth, not validation.
As I mentioned above, product managers spend most of their time working with other people from multiple teams and making sure everyone’s thoughts are heard. That being said, it is easy to lose sight of a project’s purpose with so many background voices trying to get their opinions across. Everyone on the team usually wants to contribute to the success of the project and the process of facilitating all these ideas is oftentimes left up to the product manager.
However, it is easy for product managers to fall into the trap of seeking validation for ideas — especially ideas of their own. As the one often put in charge of collecting and organizing ideas for projects, product managers have the ability to influence team members to lean towards certain opinions. During my time at LogDNA, I constantly practiced analyzing my ideas and the ideas of others before putting any single one in motion. This may seem like an intuitive skill, but it is an important one to talk about since it is something people need to constantly continue working on.
I believe a good product manager always seeks the truth for their work, not a validation of their own or someone else’s ideas. Personal opinions and experiences can cause subconscious bias in people and even though a product manager might have the best intentions for a project, it is good to remember to step back, analyze, and not form an attachment to any idea. At the end of the day, it is essential for product managers to remember to do what is best for the project, not what they think is best.
Product managers should understand they are not the leader.
This last skill is a bit trickier to explain since product management is so different everywhere, but the basic idea is that product managers should understand their role does not give them automatic permission to be the leader. When I first began researching product management, I often read about the popular idea that product managers are the leaders, the decision-callers, the “CEO’s” of their teams. The role of product managers is often associated with bringing groups of people together, facilitating ideas, and taking charge of meetings. Sounds like a leader, right?
Reflecting on my past 12 weeks at LogDNA, I now know that while the many tasks a product manager does may seem like the same things a leader would do, a good product manager will know their role is the exact opposite. LogDNA’s product management team actually has a lot of freedom to dictate what direction the product should take, so it would be easy to fall into that “leader mentality.” However, the product managers here at LogDNA understand they are not the leaders, but the helpers of the company.
By leading a team, a product manager may think they are responsible for everyone and the work that is produced. By helping a team, a product manager knows everyone is responsible for their own work and it is their job to help people achieve the best work possible. If you are still confused about this tricky product/leadership relationship, think of it like this.
Imagine the product manager as the coach and everyone else they work with as players on the sports team. Coaches strive to help their players become the best athletes they can be. They focus on game strategy and help guide the team to a successful path. Coaches are a source of advice and motivation — cheering on their players’ accomplishments and seeing what went wrong with their failures. Most importantly, coaches do not play the game. The execution of the game is left up to the players, just as how the coding and designing are left up to the engineers and designers. Both coaches and product managers are there to help their respective teams and ensure the final game or product is the best it can be.
Conclusion
Although product management consists of a lot of moving parts, I have found that these three skills — mastering more than just direct communication, seeking the truth, not validation, and understanding you are not the leader — remain constant within the successful product managers I have met and worked with. Product management’s ability to continually evolve and adapt means there will never be one perfect definition, but hopefully, these skills I’ve observed at LogDNA will help point you in the right direction.
