Product Management 101: Who Makes a Good Product Manager?

If you read how I got into product management, you might glean that my background was pretty… generic. There wasn’t really anything special about me. So, who would make a good product manager?

I propose that the best product managers are people who are smart and capable of learning quickly, as being a product manager requires infinite adaptability. You never know what the next day will bring! And so, these qualifications can apply to a number of people from a number of diverse backgrounds.

Some companies really emphasize a computer science or technical background for their product managers. Other people argue against that. I’ve picked up a few skills here and there, but I don’t have a hard technical background myself and I haven’t felt like that has been a hindrance in the least. That being said, I probably wouldn’t even be considered for an interview at Google based on this job description.

I’ve mentioned it before, but if I could do school again I would probably study computer science. I think knowing how to code and having a software engineering background would be a tremendous help, but I don’t believe that not having one precludes anyone from being a successful product manager.

The world is a mishmash of perspectives on where product managers should come from because the career path is relatively new and undefined still. In Utah, where I reside, the product management landscape is quite diverse in terms of background, which you can see in this report.

However, I will emphasize again what I consider to be the 3 main pillars of product management: technology, design, and analytics. Having a good foundation in each of these, whether formal or informal, will really qualify someone in my eyes. The day-to-day life of a software product manager touches on each one of those. I’m communicating directly with software engineers, I’m working closely with designers, and I am constantly analyzing, measuring, and predicting results. Mix that with a healthy dose of customer empathy and you’ve got yourself a product manager.

In fact, when interviewed at Lucid Software, my interviews focused on those exact 3 areas. I participated in interviews, some with cases, that attempted to gauge my knowledge and capacity in each of technology, design, and analytics. Now, this is a sample size of 1, and each company will handle interviews differently, but I stand by my point that if you are well versed in those 3 areas you should do fine in any situation.

For clarification, when I talk about technology in this sense, I’m not talking about coding ability. What I mean in this regard is a clear understanding of how technology and software work and how humans interact with both. Even without coding, you should be able to discuss the process of how apps are built, and the best practices for how humans interact with them.

06/04/19 EDIT: After thinking on this some more, I think I would add an additional pillar: Leadership. The ability to lead and convince teams and stakeholders is instrumental to the success of a product manager. A large portion of the job requires you to convince or persuade others to join your cause.

So what is the day to day life of a product manager like? Check out the next Product Management 101 article!

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