The 3 things that make a kick-ass Product Manager (and the traits you need in order to become one)
How do I break into Product Management? What can I do to become a stronger PM? What skills do I focus on?
These are questions that came up frequently during my coffee chats with multiple students and young professionals.
As a previous Associate Product Manager at BMO Financial Group (for payment products/solutions)and an incoming Engineering Program Manager intern at Apple, I’ve had the opportunity to interview and work with some really talented PM’s while witnessing the types of skills & traits they look for in a candidate.
Todd Jackson (VP of Product & Design at Dropbox) has a view very similar to mine, and explains what the best PM’s do:
So what skills & attributes should aspiring PM’s build and acquire, so that they can accomplish these 3 things efficiently & effectively? And how can they develop these skills so that they can be a kick-ass Product Manager?
Well, this is something that I’m still trying to accomplish in my early career. In order to become a master of my craft, I like to break up the key attributes of a PM into 3 sections:
✅ Essentials
Leadership and Communication are the obvious staples of what a master PM possesses. A product manager is an intermediary between the engineers, designers and business. They are in charge of connecting these groups together to deliver a winning product. That’s also why being able to thoroughly understand what these people are doing and express complex/technical ideas is so important for effective collaboration.
Next time, try asking a software developer what the designer on the team is working on. Chances are, they won’t fully know. Now ask a competent Product Manager, and they will be able to tell you in detail what each person is doing!
Don’t forget about Data & Analytics. As a PM, it is your job to make educated decisions based on numbers and stats. Every major feature and decision that is made should have some underlying statistical evidence to prove that this is indeed a “good idea”. On top of that, data is especially important in the post-launch of a product. What key performance metrics (KPI’s) will you track in order to measure the success of the product? Why does “X” go up and “Y” go down? These are all questions that a PM has to answer in order to make decisions and future improvements/iterations of their product.
✅ Good-to-Haves
Often times, a PM will be in charge of the development and deployment of a customer-facing product. This is why having user-focus and understanding your customers is crucial for success. The features, design, and overall success of the product will reflect how well you know your target market. As for points #2 and #3 for this category, having a technical background and/or being able to understand code can be extremely helpful in collaborating with engineers and designers to deliver technical solutions. You never want to be in a situation where you ask an engineer what they are working on, and have no clue what is being said.
Having this foundation not only helps you work effectively with these technical experts, but it helps you build trust, respect, and credibility among your teammates so that you can motivate the best work from brilliant engineers and designers.
✅ Bonuses
These things are not necessary to be a good Product Manager. With that being said, being able to write code and execute technical designs/solutions can only improve your understanding of these topics, and increase performance when working with others well-versed in those fields. This can definitely be more important in a startup environment, where a PM may have to take on more responsibility, such as technical solution development, due to limited manpower. However, big tech companies tend to have more people to specialize in these tasks, so PMs usually don’t need such in-depth knowledge. It’s just always nice to have it.
As for a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), I find this one controversial. Some would say that it should belong in the “Good-to-Have” section, and many companies seem to like their PM’s coming from an MBA background (like Amazon, who specifically recruits the majority of their new-grads from MBA programs). While this can help with job opportunities and higher compensation at times, I personally value experience way more than a Master’s. Some of the best PM’s I have ever worked with had no MBA, and I don’t think you need it to deliver great results in an organization. Many tech companies seem to agree with me too since they hire many Product Managers with no MBA background.
Conclusion
So now, the million-dollar question: how do I become a kick-ass PM? Or even how do I show my interviewer that I’m a kick-ass PM?
I’d say the quickest way to get started is to gain experience.
Communication between cross-functional teams, understanding the roles and efforts of multiple team members, evaluating user-needs, prioritizing features, and establishing KPIs. These are all things I experienced as a Product Manager intern, and get better at through countless iterations and sprints. I believe that no one can teach you how to lead or communicate effectively — it is taught through trial and error.
In addition, I emphasize understanding my teammates to the highest degree. I ask what the designers and developers are doing, and see if they have any major setbacks/challenges. If I don’t understand what a piece of code means, I go online and try to figure it out. If I can’t, then I ask for clarification. People aren't born as great PMs, they're moulded into them.
One thing I’m personally trying to get better at is understanding and designing complex data-driven systems. This basically correlates to the“system design” questions you get on interviews, which ultimately assesses your understanding of how something works from a technical perspective. Questions like: “Design Twitter” or “What happens when you search ‘Yahoo.com’ in your browser”. Knowing how components of a system connect and being able to design a feature or application at a high-level (while remaining technical) is what world-class PM’s are great at.
Resources
Here are some resources I used to land my internship at Apple and become better at Product Management:
- Cracking the PM Interview: Great for fundamentals.
- Pramp: Systems Design questions.
- Strategy2098: A product insights/strategy blog run by a Lifion Product Owner.
- LinkedIn: Follow active Product/Program Managers and see what they talk about! Some will give valuable tips/advice.
Thanks for reading! If you learned something and/or would like to follow me through my journey of becoming a champion Product Manager, make sure to follow me on my LinkedIn and my personal website!
I wrote this as my first contribution to Augment Official, a platform that empowers and elevates students. Be sure to check out our page for more informational content!
If you’re looking for more intern-focused media and communities, check out intern.club, too.
