How “Technical” should a Product Manager be?
And how much is too much?
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This question elicits passionate responses from across both sides of the table. I get lots of DMs on twitter on this question alone.
Well, there are two schools of thought around this👇
- Being too technical actually distracts a PM from what they should really be working on — strategy, Roadmap, competitive Analysis, defining what to build.
- Technical skills are superpowers for a PM that helps them do the job better.
But as with most other things around us, the answer to this question is not binary.
There is some truth to the fact that if a Product Manager spends all their time talking and solving technical issues, they’ll have little time left to understand the market, talk to customers and figure out what to build.
But that has got nothing to do with whether or not a PM should have technical skills.
Based on my experience building and managing products for over a decade, I strongly believe that Product Managers should in fact prioritize building…
