How technical is enough for a Product Manager?
As a Product Manager, I’ve been collaborating with engineers to craft impactful digital products for nearly a decade. My journey into this role was a bit unconventional. Rather than starting with a technology background, I was a commerce and accounting student. My first glimpse into the world of ‘product’ came from a marketing internship, marking a significant shift in my career trajectory.
This transition, while rewarding, has been accompanied by a persistent insecurity: the fear of not being “technical enough.”
To mitigate this, I’ve dedicated considerable time outside work to enhance my technological literacy. My quest for knowledge led me to delve into programming, covering languages and frameworks such as HTML, CSS, PHP, Python, and Ruby on Rails. Furthermore, I immersed myself in a broad array of courses, from Computer Science fundamentals like CS 50 to specialized topics in AI, Machine Learning, Data Science, and Cloud Technologies with AWS. Completing the Technical PM course by Irene Yu was also a part of this journey.
Despite these efforts, the insecurity about my technical depth lingered.
In some instances, the more I learned, the more I doubted my capabilities. This cycle of doubt was finally broken during a conversation with my mentor, an esteemed product leader. She highlighted a pivotal insight:
“the essence of being a PM isn’t only about technical mastery, but rather, it’s about harmonising the diverse expertise within a team to create products that resonate with users and the market.”
This realisation was my turning point. I began to understand that focusing solely on technical skills might not yield the expected return on investment. Instead, the role of a PM extends beyond technical skills; it’s about staying in tune with market trends, engaging with customers, refining product strategies, and fostering a high performing product team.
Collaborating with highly skilled engineers, I recognised the importance of leveraging their technical expertise instead of striving to match it.
This led to a significant shift in my personal objectives, moving from a desire to become more technical to a focus on enhancing product development through effective teamwork.
This new perspective has not only significantly reduced my insecurities but has also fostered a more productive and collaborative environment for me and my team!
These are 3 key behaviours changes I found it really help me to be a more effective product manager — while becoming tiny bit more technical unconsciously everyday :)
1.Empowering the Engineering Team:
Previously, I would finalise the complete thinking of product strategy, vision, and roadmap before involving the engineering team, which actually limited collaborative opportunities and early feedback from them.
Now, I’ve learned to share my preliminary thoughts on these aspects very early on, inviting feedback and encouraging the engineering team members to develop a corresponding technology strategy. (including HL solutions/ development options, scalability plan etc).
I always make sure to refine the product strategy together with the tech strategy and eventually merge them into 1 single artefact. This really strengthened the synergy between technology and product strategies and ensures a robust foundation for our product’s infrastructure and scalability.
2.Defining Outcomes Together:
To improve collaboration and eliminate communication barriers with engineers, we define test cases, scenarios and conduct story kick-offs before starting the build.
These practices ensure everyone in the team has a clear understanding of both technical and product requirements, streamlining our development process. This has been one of the most call outs in almost every single team retrospectives “What went well” section!
3.Selective Self-Development:
Having engaged in numerous online courses and self-study programs as mentioned before, I’ve noticed that knowledge retention is very challenging without immediate practical application.
Now, I prioritise the learning topics that I can apply directly to current work (product or technical challenges the team are facing, emerging tech our competitors are adopting etc).
If immediate application isn’t feasible, I look for ways to share this knowledge, such as writing a blog, hosting meetups, or organizing lunch-and-learn sessions.
In conclusion, the definition of a good Product Manager/ Technical Product Manager is NOT to compete our technical skills with our amazing engineers, but the ability to work with them more effectively to achieve the best outcomes for your customers, organisations and markets.
Transitioning my focus from purely technical learning to a more holistic approach in product management has been transformative. It has enabled me to leverage the collective expertise of my team, driving the development of impactful products and fostering a learning culture that benefits both individual and team growth.
