Over the last while, I’ve been reflecting on what makes a great product manager (PM). Part of it is to hone my craft, and the other part of it is coaching others in their PM or startup journey. I also recommend these traits to founders of companies who are acting as product managers. This is a list of what I believe are a few traits that make certain product managers great.
Playing chess and checkers
It’s always the same story, we have 100 things to build and not enough time/resources. Savvy PMs prioritize and play chess. It’s important to mindfully think about how to structure a roadmap that can generate value while keeping building under-control. It’s extremely important to have a clear vision and strategy set for the product and to work with engineering to execute against it. I believe that a PM’s role is to mindfully design and manically execute. Execution is a game of checkers.
This will lead to not everyone getting what they want, so I want to leave you with this quote:
You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Jon Lydgate
Opinionated but not stubborn
Opinionated PMs can either be the life of the product or its death. Great PMs are opinionated and form their opinions based on facts like market data, sales data, customer usage data, speaking with customers, and so on. Terrible PMs form their opinions based on what they’ve heard, imagined, or feel. Even more dangerous is when a PM’s ego comes in the way and they become stubborn. Not adapting to new evidence is detrimental to a product.
Opinionated PMs should be able to talk about the product, problems, and features at any level of clarity, while also listening to ever-evolving needs and market changes.
Be steadfast in your mission, and flexible in your approach.
Be technical… enough.
A large part of a PM’s day is working and supporting the development effort. Understanding how your tech stack works & doesn’t can play a huge role in how you execute. PMs need to be comfortable with how their product is architected, modeled, built, and provisioned. I’ve always felt not understanding some of these elements leaves a PM blind and a developer alone in figuring things out. On the flip side, great developers need to understand how the product should functionally work, so why shouldn’t a PM understand how the technology works. I’ve often seen PMs say “not my problem, let the technical folks figure it out.” It’s a lazy approach.
We’ve been exploring React on our team, and so I spent a weekend learning React. Why? It’ll help me understand what they’re talking about, and to find ways we can leverage the technology to achieve more. So take an SQL course, or learn about the programming language your engineers are using.
Know when to lead and when to support
You often hear that the Product Manager is the “CEO of the product”. Product Managers lead initiatives across the board, but they’re not responsible for everything. Probably 80% of a PM’s time is actually supporting others to accomplish their goals. Helping clear up developer questions, supporting a marketing initiative, or even working with finance on metrics. Oftentimes, they find themselves needing to connect the different parts of the company. They need to be a communications hub cutting across all departments to enable knowledge sharing. Not only that, but they also need to be a translator to the different stakeholders. Lead in direction and design; support others in their success.
Negotiate together
The best PMs are masters at negotiating. You often find yourself negotiating features with customers, resources with engineering, designs with architects, etc. Negotiation sometimes feels like a dirty word because it’s often done as a contest of wills. A great PM focuses on real win-win situations for all stakeholders by understanding their interests without compromising on the product’s strategy and goals. This skill is something I recently realized I needed to work on.
Two books I can recommend are:
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, et al.
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss
Conclusion
This is a handful of skills that I believe great PMs are made from. It’s not an exhaustive list, but having these probably will put you at the top of your game. Let me know what other items I’ve missed or if you agree with any of the items.
Ahmad Sadeddin 