Which college students make the best product managers?
As a college instructor of a product management course, I work closely with students trying product management for the first time. Within the class, students establish a problem statement, validate it by interviewing potential customers, turn their insights into requirements and then user stories, and make a manual-first solution (and ideally iterate a cycle or two).
The course is open to all class years and all backgrounds, and I’ve found that there aren’t discernible patterns between what students study and their propensity to excel. However, students who tend to thrive (and ultimately continue developing their product when the class ends) share a few qualities that allow them to shine amongst their peers.
Nearly always, the students who stick understand the importance of prioritization. They focus on what’s most important instead of following what they find most interesting. Their curiosity is connected to an objective. When these students figure out what they should complete next, they determine the steps of how to get it done. And then they begin checking things off in a logical sequence. The top students prioritize, but they also prune their to-do list by removing what’s not absolutely essential.
These students also focus on what’s important from the perspective of their customer. They tend to be excellent listeners, focusing on understanding things rather than validating their beliefs. By paying close attention to the needs of their customers, their initial solutions tend to achieve what their customers need to get done. They tend to be disinterested in making “what would be cool” and direct their energy towards what customers actually need.
When I think of students who have picked up product management especially quickly and effectively, two come to mind right away — Katherine and Dylan found PM to be a natural fit, and now they guide others in the craft.
List-makers are honing their product prioritization skills daily
Katharine Dougherty is a co-founder of Easy Eats, a technology-based platform that provides dorm-door food delivery service to college students. Katharine and her team have brought the platform to several campuses now and are beginning to scale.
Prior to Easy Eats, Katharine was already highly attentive to prioritizing well. When we first began working together, Katharine described herself as a planner — she starts with the objective she wants to achieve. She then compiles a to-do list. Sometimes it’s handwritten. Other times it’s digital. Then before starting, she reexamines the list to figure out if anything can be removed. What’s not essential?
Unknowingly, Katharine had long been preparing to succeed as a product manager by practicing how to define, prioritize, and prune a backlog that, when complete, would meet a defined objective.
One of Katharine’s recent major objectives was to win a grant from the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) that would allow her team to pay for the product development their mobile app needed. Successful MTI applications can extend to 20 pages of written explanations, figures, and projections. And such a rigorous and detailed application has been a challenge for many students to complete.
In order to complete the application by her self-imposed due date, Katharine split her writing into smaller tasks and assigned a due date to each chunk. Once Katharine got to writing, she noticed that the editing process was extending past the deadlines she set for herself. Katharine had stumbled upon learning about the definition of done and adjusted her timeline so that completed sections were removed from sight. By learning to prioritize the work directly in front of her until it was “done”, Katharine started making much speedier progress because it meant not returning to incomplete work. Katharine’s work with writing the MTI grant resulted in a winning application, gaining her team $10k for product development work.
Students who listen for understanding make better products
Dylan Veilleux is the founder of Tree Free Heat. He converts hemp stalks, an abundant waste byproduct throughout Maine, into products used by outing and camping enthusiasts. Dylan’s current (profitable) product is significantly different than what he initially envisioned. And it’s because he focused not on making what he personally envisioned, but on delivering what his customers wanted to get done.
If there’s a single quality that connects the students making the most consistent and tangible product progress, it’s how their curiosity focuses on people and their needs (rather than their own). They care deeply about people and they listen intently. Product management is about defining outcomes and working within processes to achieve those outcomes. But, before defining outcomes, the job is about understanding people and figuring out how to make the right product for them.
Students who stick are nearly always described by their peers as keen listeners. And they listen to understand, not to reply. They’re not listening for feature requests. They’re listening to what people want to get done. Because people don’t inherently care about the product you make. They care about what your product helps them to achieve.
Dylan makes firestarters. His customers want an easy-to-make fire. But Dylan knows that what his customers really want is to feel cool when they’re with their friends because they started the fire that’ll roast their marshmallows. They want a campfire to help them relax from a long week. They want to share an experience with the people they care about. For many campers, the fire is essential to their outdoor experience, and that’s why they buy his product.
By listening closely to his customers’ emotions, Dylan learned that they were buying his product in order to feel a certain way. When he started getting in touch with campground owners, he learned that many of their customers are novice campers. And so, with these two golden nuggets of information, Dylan focused on the notion that his customers are buying an emotion. And helping campers easily start a campfire is essential to bringing them back to the campground. Sure, they’re buying firestarters. But, they’re really buying joystarters.
Are You a Listening Listmaker?
Product management might be for you. But, what’s the best way to tell? I’d urge you to build something. It might sound rather intimidating. But should you want to pursue product management upon graduation, having a product to show off and talk about will be a rather significant differentiator. It’s very easy to talk about an interest in making products, but taking action will make you an ideal applicant.
Not sure what to make? So that you’re focused on learning about a problem, it might be ideal that you aren’t starting with a solution in mind. I’d encourage you to think about an annoying problem in your own life. Ideally, it’s something you’ve taken steps to begin to solve because that’ll ensure that it’s something that matters to you.
You don’t need to know how to code. You don’t have to study design. The best solutions happen when the makers are experts about the problem. You, of course, know the most about the problem you face yourself.
Ready to get started?
The first assignment in all of my classes is for students to write a problem statement. In plain English and in your own words, what seems to be the problem you’re seeing? What type of person has this problem? Why is it a problem?
Small steps add up. While building a product might feel daunting, writing a few sentences isn’t. And once you do, you’ll no longer be an aspiring product manager. You’ll be taking the first step of being one.
