Making the switch to Product Manager: 5 skills you may not know you already have
After working 2.5 years at TicketSwap as France Country Manager, I had the opportunity to make the internal switch to Product Manager (PM). This shift in roles helped me discover 5 skills that are at the heart of Product Management.
A little bit of context
TicketSwap is an online platform to buy and sell e-tickets at a fair price. Simplicity, transparency, and fairness are TicketSwap’s core values. In 5 years, TicketSwap is one of the most successful startups in Amsterdam and is active in more than 20 countries with 3 million active users and counting.
As Country Manager, I had an entrepreneurial role with a sole mission: make TicketSwap a success in France. My activities varied from online marketing, partnership management, social media communication and PR. But after 2.5 years, I had the opportunity to move to our Product team as Product Manager. Making the shift was extremely exciting, but also worrying as I wasn’t sure I had the necessary set of skills to perform in that role.
Skill⁵
After switching roles, I realised that 5 skills are extremely valuable in order to be an ideal Product Manager (or Product Owner).
Communication
As a PM, you will communicate; and you will communicate with a hell of a lot of people! The hard thing is: in every interaction, you need to make yourself very clear. Most of the time, you will talk to stakeholders to inform them about a new feature the team is building and features that have been built. Your stakeholders will need to understand precisely what is new in order to use it themselves or inform end-users.
You‘ll also have to challenge them to explain their problem clearly. Challenge the why and always ask yourself this simple question: “Do I really understand why this person needs this?”. If it’s not crystal clear and you can’t explain it to someone else, ask more questions!
Stakeholder management
One of the most important skills a PM should have is stakeholder management.
As a PM you are the bridge between business and product. You are the buffer between the development team and the requests from the business teams; and you have to guard your team in the best way possible. You are also the person responsible for reporting the development team’s increments to the business teams, which ensures clarity of progress.
Most importantly, you’re the person that has to say no. It’s not always fun, but somebody’s gotta do it!
Value optimiser
If someone asks me what is a PM, I always say “he’s a value optimiser”. The PM has the advantage of having the birds-eye view. He’s passionate and knows about the product the development team is building. He also knows his users through data.
The PM should always challenge the request of the stakeholders and ask himself “is this really bringing value to my users?”. And if it does, what can I, as a PM, suggest to make this feature even more awesome!
Prioritising
Your resources are always limited. As much as you want, you won’t have the time to build everything. Moreover, some features need to be developed before other features can be implemented; it’s up to you to figure it out and make sure it’s clear for the team.
Another important factor that helps you prioritise is your constant contact with the development team. Being aware of how much time or effort a feature will require helps you decide whether it’s a good idea to push today or not.
Prioritisation and value optimisation are closely linked and one formula a PM should always have in the mind is: value vs. effort.
Team player
The PM/PO role falls into the Scrum methodology. Scrum is, by definition, not viable without an independent, self-organised team. In your role, you are responsible for setting the right environment for the team to achieve their goal. You’ll need to be considerate of your team and quite often put your ego and personal preferences aside for the greater good of the team!
Wrapping up
All of these skills are not exclusive to Product Management. They can be found in various different disciplines: Marketing, HR and Communications, to name a few.
Sure, you might not have all of them, but that’s ok! Every PM has different strengths and areas where he or she is more comfortable. Having great communication skills can compensate for the lack of some natural team player know-how; being very analytical and easily understanding features’ value can compensate for lacking prioritisation skills.
It all comes down to knowing your strengths, making the best out of it and improving on your flaws to become better. And guess what, maybe becoming a PM is not as far away as you think!
