Product Management Skills

This reminds me of an interview question I got a very long time ago: "Is it better to have a bad team or a bad manager". In both cases, you'd rather not find yourself in either extreme. In both cases, there is no right or wrong answer and a lot depends on additional circumstances and assumptions. The answer will also depend on your value system and the experiences which have shaped your core beliefs about human aptitude and potential.  For the sake of argument, if I had to pick, I would first apply the same framework: which suboptimal option is more mitigatable.  I believe that most people have the capacity to learn the facts of the domain, the technical aspects, I.e. the hard skills, with sufficient effort and time. On some level, I see acquiring the hard skills in this contrived case akin to suceeding in a college course you know nothing about but are highly motivated to ace. The soft skills can also be learned, but these are much more entangled with personality, self-awareness, communication style, etc., all of which develop and become ingrained over the years. They are harder to inculcate artificially or to undo as bad habits. Poor soft skills can burn bridges and set the course of nascent relationships on the wrong trajectory, impacting your ability drive results far into the future. No amount of hard skills may be able to offset that. Good soft skills can even buy you time to get up to speed on the hard skills, and can get you critical early support from the team to actively help you get there.  This is why if I had to, I would pick the soft skills option.

My personal take is that when I am speaking with strong product candidates, I can see a few qualities shine through in their story. For me, those are:  1. They are constant Learners/curious They are constantly asking questions and actively listening. They are readers and constant consumers of information. To me, this shows that when they come on the team, they will bring fresh ideas forward. Ask the team questions that others may not consider and bring new information to the table.  2. They are persistent and don't stop at 'no' In this, they are contantly trying to understand constraints and find alternatives. They want to address a problem and flexibly driving towards a solution that will do it. They do not get discouraged when someone says no. Maybe they will flex their soft skills and coax a 'maybe' out of the person saying 'no'. 3. Understand how to balance the art and science Often times when we talk about product management, we talk about the science. Your frameworks, how you manage backlogs, understanding data and tracking metrics and all of those fun items. You'll find a lot of books on these topics because they are measurable and easier to write about. On the other hand, we often forget about the art. The way things get done. How you communicate, show empathy, tell a compelling story and inspire others. How you connect with your customers and their problems, lead individuals without authority. Normally when a PM fails, it's because not enough attention is paid to the art.  4. Focus on problems not solutions Often times when someone is describing a problem, you want to jump to a solution. Technically product management is helping to solve a customer problem... but to truly solve a problem, you must really fall in love with the problem.  5. Able to represent multiple POV They are able to advocate wearing different hats. So they can speak to engineer, executives, marketing, the customer, you name it. They can comfortably devils' advocate ideas and not settle for the first answer suggested. Often in the interview process, you are meeting with different stakeholders and really they are each approaching you with a different lens (or hat) to evaluate your ability to breakdown a problem.

For me the biggest differentiator is having a growth mindset. This doesn't just mean they want to make an impact and improve as a PM. For me it comes down to three things: 1. They have a sense of what they know and don't know, and are always eager to learn more. They question their own assumptions. 2. They're humble and curious in trying to figure out what they don't know and leverage the expertise of others. 3. They frequently seek feedback from others and try to challenge themselves, not just to achieve more but to be a better colleague and partner to others.

1. They teach you something in the interview I once interviewed a woman who had extensive experience working for a telecommunications company. I have zero experience in telco – aside from being a customer of Verizon Wireless. I walked out of that interview having learned so much about telco companies, their business model, what they optimize for, how they segment their customers, etc. In the stories the candidate told about her work experiences she concisely weaved in the basics of the telco in a digestible way and was very aware of the learnings and insights she had from her product launch successes and failures.  As a product manager you’re responsible for the “what” and the “why.” What should we build and why should we build it? If you’re able to succinctly describe the what and the why of your current or previous roles -- no mater the industry -- that’s a great indication of a strong PM. 2. They make it a two-way conversation. (See answer to “What are the most common mistakes you see candidates make” question above)

A few things: * A very deep understanding of the problems they are looking to solve. This gets reflected in how they speak about past experiences (why did you choose to work on a specific problem, what exactly was the need?) as well as any case study (are they asking intelligent questions to understand the need). * User-first approach: While solving the problem they identified, are they putting the user at the forefront? Are they clear about who the users are for the problem? * Clear communication * For more experienced positions and specific for B2B products, are they mature to understand roll-out considerations for a large group of stakeholders? What are the people and processes needed to make a roll-out successful?

I'll speak to commonalities in IC PMs since I have less experience hiring other product leaders. It's really just 4 things in my view: * A clear ability to break down complex, multi-faceted problems into digestible, actionable chunks, as usually shown via some kind of case interview. * Excellent ability to ask good, tough questions * A clear track record of having an impact and/or continuous learning/improvement. This may not necessarily be demonstrated through previous work as a PM, but the candidate is able to speak clearly to the impact they distinctly had or the specificity of the learnings they captured. * Genuine interest and energy around the problems discussed in the interview cycle. This may show up in a case interview (ie. clear enthusiasm about the challenge presented) or when asking questions about the role/company. I always like to see how a candidate reacts when I answer questions about the business/product, challenges we face, etc.

Best product management candidates craft compelling, concise and inspirational narratives when they interview. They demonstrate clarity of thinking, knowing both the facts and the "why" behind their answers, and genuine curiosity. I always walk out of an interview with a great product manager feeling like I have learned something valuable, and inspired. I spoke to the skills I've seen among successful product managers in another answer to the AMA, but if you are looking to impress hiring managers specifically, I recommend practicing storytelling and becoming a great conversationalist in addition to the core skills you need to the job. The good news is that your conversational and story telling skills get better the more you practice - and you are not limited to interviews only. Any sort of verbal presentation mastery - Toastmasters, Improv and comedy, acting classes etc. will help you become a master storyteller. 

The best Product managers combine curiosity with structured problem solving skills. Being curious helps them look at problems as opportunities to learn & grow. Ability to frame & structure a problem helps them take others along in the process. Both these skills can be learnt & cultivated over time. Curiosity - Being curious is an under-rated skill. PMs who are curious keep learning, adding new tools (ideas, PM techniques, s/w tools) to their expanding toolkit and more importantly keep expanding their perspective. Structured Problem Solving - Being able to frame a problem in a simple manner, helps all cross-functional stakeholders & partners align on the problem definition (yes, this is key), the solution and then the execution I try to imbue these two values on a daily basis and this has helped me seamlessly transition across AdTech, Consumer Tech, E-Commerce & Fintech. And, it's a lot of fun!

I personally believe this to be communication. Often times, we as PMs dive heads down into a problem with understanding that we need to have a time with us to do the work. It is important to develop a communication style that resonates meaningfully with your audience. As a PM, you will need to communicate with: 1. Stakeholders 2. Peers 3. Direct reports 4. External partners  Each of these groups will require their own set of nuance that you will need to determine based on the relationship you are working to develop OR need to maintain. Often times when you see friction in organization, it comes down to a miscommunication or lack of communication. It's better to set yourself up for success here. My recommendation: 1. List your who your audiences are 2. Capture their needs and the required cadence for communication. Understand the best mode to share communication, whether that is slack, in person or email.  3. Kick off your process 4. Important step... ask for feedback frequently. You don't want to wait until something breaks to know something is wrong. Ask people if they are getting what they need from you until you feel satisfied you are meeting the mark. 

I'd love to answer this in a slightly different way: The single most important skill, that cannot be rated highly enough is Communication. Many other soft skills are fundamentally still rooted in or are dependent on communication.  Nuanced aspects of communication also matter: * adapting communication to the audience and situation * timing the communication * communication in all forms: written, verbal, non-verbal/body language.

Sharp communication skills that enable proactive stakeholder management. This doesn't just mean blasting memos and updates to everyone, everywhere – it means:  * Speaking about what matters to who;  * Understanding what is the right timing; * And knowing which channels are most effective for getting your point across.  In some organizations, you may be lucky enough to have a Product Operations team to help you with that; in others, you won't. Leaning into comms and stakeholder management means:  * Risks are assessed early; * Issues requiring help are unblocked; * Expectations are adjusted at the right time;  * And – most importantly – that your teams (from executive leadership to direct reports to cross-functional collaborators) know they can trust you.

Empathy and the ability to connect with people across the board is the most under-rated skill for high-performing PMs. Empathy enables PMs to connect dots, build relationships, solve problems and dive-deep, to increase their expertise PMs need to exhibit people skills that span three broad categories and empathy for each of these different categories helps in its own way. 1. Managing XFN - PMs typically work with large cross-functional (XFN) teams and need to adapt their working styles for each of the XFN teams, their involvement in the product/ problem, the individual team members' seniority & their time at the company. Initiatives that are amongst the top priorities for the company might have a fully staffed XFN team and others would have varying degrees of staffing. Likewise, new initiatives, esp 0-1 initiatives would have gaps in resourcing and would sometimes be staffed with new hires or interns. The ability to connect with people will ensure the PM is able to partner with all XFN appropriately to get things done. For instance, at Flipkart & Rakuten, we were resource constrained and I hired interns for our Tiger (Innovation) teams. It was one of the most fun experiences I had since we could think big, not fear failure and also time-box our work (to match with internship cycles) to launch a prototype or pilot. Products such as Flipkart Merchant Ads, Flipkart Funnel Attribution & R-Pay Merchant Rewards developed from these pilots 2. Team leadership - PMs, esp later in their careers, would be managing teams of Product Managers, across their career spectrum. Every PM is different in their approach, some lean on context, others lean on passion, yet others on structured problem solving process and being able to identify what makes the team tick and make them the best version of themselves in key! My team had Rakuten had PMs that spanned multiple archetypes from the Captain (who likes to lead large initiatives themselves), the Generalist (who can shape-shift to any project), the Specialist (who likes to specialize in a domain), the Architect (Technical PMs who like to build) and the Integrator (PMs who are good at managing large, complex initiatives).  Meta has an equally impressive range of archetypes for PMs and more for TPMs & Project Managers. 3. Executive Presence -  The last & most critical category of people interactions for senior PMs is working with executives & Sr leadership in any firm. Here again, empathy for the leaders, for the scale & scope of problems they are solving, for what keeps them up at night, will go a long way in helping the company, the org & the product team. Sr PMs need to think of themselves as Chief Enabling Officers and the more they enable Executives, the more they enable their own teams

There are different paths that each product manager takes, but the common ones I've seen are: 1. Joining a tech company as an Associate PM or an intern straight from college. For college grads, I suggest starting by connecting with other product managers (e.g. via LinkedIn) to better understand what we do. There are great books available on this topic as well -- "Cracking PM Interview" is among my favorites. I also created a series of videos explaining tech jobs and what do I do in more detail - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsAz_arwNkiPobhi09VrMFg 2. Transition from other roles e.g. Engineering, Professional Services, Support. This path is easier, as it assumes that you are already in a tech company and can make connections with internal PMs. Picking a PM as a mentor or just becoming a friend with one is a great place to start. I also need to point out that PMs sit at the intersection of Business, Technology, and UX (Customer) -- that is why engineers who transition to a PM team will have an advantage as they understand the technology much deeper. On the other hand, someone in Support who wants to become a PM brings a much deeper understanding of a customer.

There is a fork in the PM career path road: one is becoming a people manager, the other becoming an expert in a deep thinking product area sans managing a team.  My recommendation is to figure out which one is right for you. Many folks want to jump into management simply because they think this is the only way to grow, make more $$$ and so on. That is not true. Big and small orgs I have been a part of value senior individual contributors that are passionate about their individual craft. Speak with folks from both paths, and see which one resonates more with you. Try mentoring people and see if you like helping others succeed through your guidance as a "management path" check.  Then, share your thinking with your manager to get them to help you moving along this path. 

This is a very interesting question and one that I keep touching upon on almost all career conversations with my teams & mentees. There is no one typical career path for PMs, which can be both liberating and challenging at the same time! It's liberating since PMs have the chance to shape their careers to what they would like it to be, playing to their strengths and having a fulfilling life & career. It's challenging since every industry and many firms in the same industry have different definitions & requirements for what a PM is! For instance, even within FAANG firms, the definition of a PM is different - Google requires PMs to market the work of their Engineers, Apple PMs are usually good at their domain of expertise but execute on Sr Management decisions, Amazon PMs are Business/ Program Managers with heightened focus on a few metrics, Netflix PMs are very Technical (most of their PMs were former Engineers or Architects) and Meta offers almost the full buffet but also the most agency & empowerment to PMs. I touched upon some of the PM archetypes in another answer and its great to see that PMs can succeed in any shape or form tht adds value to their firm! PMs who are early in their careers will do well to join established firms to understand the PM tracks and how senior PMs have shaped their careers. Working in a start-up or a 0-1 environment usually turbo-charges a PM's career but only if the PM is aware of their strengths & know-how to leverage them. I have found that alternating between large firms & startups or between established products/ projects and 0-1 initiatives is the best way one can gain the most perspective and shape their careers as PMs.

Having worked in Product in completely opposite contexts, the most valuable soft and hard skills depend on several factors, including product maturity, organizational maturity, availability of supporting functions (e.g., Product Operations, Product Analysts, etc.), and company cultural norms.  At WooCommerce/Automattic, the expectations I set for PMs are: 1. Drive the creation and execution of product strategy for your focus area. 2. Lead multi-disciplinary teams through the development process. 3. Cultivate direct connections with our customers. 4. Increase our success in aiding our customers’ success. 5. Contribute to good business unit leadership decisions. With this context, I would say the most important soft and hard skills for PMs at WooCommerce are: Soft skills * Proactive internal communication – up, down, sideways (to peers and cross-functional collaborators). * Spearheading cross-functional collaboration – from defining an inspirational "why" to project-managing a variety of stakeholders toward getting things done. * Deep listening to customers – this includes taking a genuine interest in their feedback, and sometimes hearing what is not said but implied between the lines or in non-verbal cues. Hard skills * Functional expertise – most PMs come from marketing, engineering, or design backgrounds; being able to draw from an area of mastery will inform your POV (and give you one less area to ramp up on!). * Goal setting and accountability – this one is a bit operational, but being able to translate product into measureable impacts will be essential to prioritization and making a solid business case with your teams. This has, implied in it, analytical skills, or at least confidence in quantifying outcomes. * Industry or subject matter expertise – Another thing that will inform your POV and reduce ramp time.

* Soft skill: Great product managers can seamlessly adjust their communication to match their audience. As a product manager, you'll speak with people in different roles and varying levels of expertise in your subject area. It is essential that you can communicate your ideas and exchange information with everyone! I really love the perspective shared by Camilla Boyer in a recent talk at GitLab about communicating with emotional intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pZoNORrDjU. Product managers should approach conversations with the mindset of providing the information their audience needs instead of focusing on what they need to say. * Hard skill: Iteration is one of the hardest things to master, but it is essential for providing value quickly and getting feedback to improve your product. GitLab has great resources to help improve this skill. Check them out https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration! One thing that has really helped me improve my iteration skills is to think of my product as ever-evolving and that what we release is not the final version. If a set of changes are an improvement to the current experience and there's a clear roadmap to build upon that experience, then we should release it even if we are not done! 

Being a good PM helps becoming a good manager of PMs, but is not a sufficient condition. I have seen below 3 as top challenges/opportunities unique to GPMs: 1. Deligating, and trusting your direct report PMs to care about Customers as much as you do, if not more. 2. Providing saftey net for PMs to fail fast, learn, and iterate, but as well the essential framework on lowering the cost of failure to ensure contribution to business impact. 3. Knowing that PM skills are not hard to aquire, but takes time. Coaching the team on specific PM skills need persistence and patience. It is not like you launch a product, and you see a metric go up instantaneously.

Going from an IC PM to a manager role was one of the most gratifying transitions in my career. Having been a manager before in a different context prior to becoming a Group Product Manager at HubSpot, I had some prior experience leading teams and operating in an environment with broader scope and complexity that helped ease the transition. That said, I do recall a couple of things: * Saying no to your pet rock: As an IC PM, you’re the biggest fan of your own product ideas first and foremost. Given my drive for intellectual honesty, I’ve generally taken pride in my ability to arrive at the best possible answer (even if it’s not originally my own) throughout my career. I do still remember early on as a GPM saying no to ideas I thought were great in the past was a practice of self-restraint. Fortunately, this comes naturally now. Now my role has shifted to ensuring teams are focused on the most impactful work, and having strong empathy for teams when we have to say no to the incredible ideas they harbored. * Finding the right cruising altitude: Within the context of HubSpot, there’s a Product Lead player-coach role between PM and GPM. During my time as a Product Lead, I found it challenging and thrilling all at the same time to be at the right cruising altitude depending on the task at hand and who I was communicating with. The way you communicate with the team you’re PM-ing is probably not the same way you would communicate with executive leaders. * Finding your people: This is something I recall from shortly after I shifted to GPM. As an individual contributor (IC) PM you develop very deep relationships with the designers and engineers you work with day in and out. You’re in zoom meetings or on slack with them most of the day. Especially in a hybrid world, it took me a moment to shift my mindset to a broader definition of team and intentionally spend more time with the PMs and peers in the product leadership team. Fortunately, I love building new connections and HubSpotters are very warm and eager to meet new folks so this was a fleeting moment. I’m sure there are a lot more, but these were top of mind.

A CEO once told me that he would only hire a person if he thought that he would enjoy the time spent with that person despite being stuck at an airport with them waiting to board an indefinitely delayed flight. Despite the exaggeration, I've always imagined the equivalent scenario as whether engineers would want to spend hours with a PM in a war room or a bug bash. Be an engaged partner. Be in the trenches with them. Work hard or harder. Follow-up and follow-through on your stuff. Be transparent about the real business context, the one they may not have heard. Tell them about what you are up against. Bounce ideas off of them, ask about options, be curious. Be their ally, advocate, or sounding board when needed but not blindly. Don't just toss a problem over the wall. Write a technical PRD vs a one-pager. If they are "not delivering" don't just report it as late in a status meeting. Meet proactively- ask what can you do to help them do their part. There could be a zillion other reasons- they are working on something else that's more important, or even less important but they didn't know otherwise, they don't know how to "fix it" yet, or they are dealing with personal issues, etc. Admit your mistakes and help them recover from any of theirs. This does not mean sweeping real issues under the rug. Address things that cause real damage head on privately or less privately as needed. By now you may have noticed that none of my answer contains anything about having more technical knowledge. It is also true that getting increasingly more technical will always help. But it won't impress or influence. Being real and human is more impressive these days; it will build trust, and trust paves the path to true influence, one that cannot be confused with coming from title or power.

My top-3 favorites purely from a product perspective: * Google Photos, for very delightful and practical uses of AI * Huckleberry, for attempting to solve the problems of new parents in a tech-first way * Tesla, for the beautiful combo of hardware and software to create an overall rich user experience (not factoring in leadership, political, health, or climate impact)

I’m assuming the question is about setting a ‘team’ vision/mission and one doesn’t exist yet. The mission statement is the “What” and the vision statement is an ambitious future state of what the world might look like when you accomplish your mission. A crisp vision/mission statement serves as a strong identity for your team and guides them during critical moments of decision making, gaining alignment, prioritizing resources etc. Here is a framework that I’ve leveraged in the past to arrive at a vision/mission statement for my teams, collaborating with our cross-functional partners. Have each person in the working group articulate the following in once sentence. * Understand our role * Why do we exist? * What is our purpose? * What principles drive our product building? * Understand our customers * What does research tell us? * What problems do they have? * How are we helping them? * Understand how the future looks like * What’ll happen if we didn’t exist? * What does success look like? Next, create the vision and mission statements based on common themes and ensure it aligns with the company’s vision & mission. These statements should typically be short, start with a verb, strive to be aspirational and endure the test of time. Once the working group of cross functional partners align, socialize with key stakeholders and the broader org. You might want to consider doing a branding splash (new logo, ordering swags) to get people excited about the new vision & mission.

There is no doubt that retaining top talent is critical to any organization not only because of the value top talent brings, but also because it takes time to find and ramp up a new hire. While establishing a new team, hiring the right person who is a good fit for the team and the company contributes greatly to talent retention. What I offer to my talented people to retain them are: understanding, recognition and growth opportunities, which are all built on a trusted foundation. I strongly believe trust is the foundation for any form of relationship, including leadership, partnership, mentorship and any work that requires collaboration. And, trust needs to be earned - it takes a good amount of time to earn and very little time to break. Over the years, I have found that the concept “Caring Personally while Challenging Directly” as taught in the book “Radical Candor”, has helped me to earn trust from my teams. (I highly recommend this book if you have not yet read it). Building trust: 1. Understand what parts of the job each member finds most interesting and rewarding. 2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of my team members. 3. Communicate about each team member's short and long term goals. 4. Stay on top of the areas that each member finds most comfortable and challenging. Recognition: 1. Provide positive feedback to validate the value and impact of their great work. 2. Motivate effort and behavior even if it does not directly tie to business results. 3. Provide the recognition that is tailored to the preferences of each individual’s personality. 4. Help them to shine and gain visibility by showcasing goal and impact achievement at team and org level. Growth opportunities: 1. Create on-the-job opportunities for them. 2. Treat challenges as opportunities for them to grow. 3. Provide on the spot constructive feedback with detailed suggestions. 4. Set up a step-by-step plan based on each team member’s goal and interests and check-in and align regularly.

I’ve worked in Product across two very different contexts – a company that favored complete alignment versus a company where autonomy was part of their cultural DNA.  While there are a lot factors that contribute to retention (industry trends, opportunities for career progression, compensation), the factors in my daily focus are derived from this definition of psychological safety: * Meaning – company vision, team purpose, individual contribution, and belonging. * Mastery – goals and accountability, periodic feedback, recognition, and opportunities to teach/mentor others. * Trust – in the role and team, clear expectations, ownership (and delegation), open communication.

I’ll skip the obvious things - pay well, set a vision, growing company, skill building, career pathing - and highlight some under-rated ones: *  Hire well and have high talent density. Most people who choose a career in Product Management are motivated by self improvement - being around other talented PMs who they admire and who push their thinking is motivating. *  Stay lean. This may seem counterintuitive - isn’t it good to have enough PMs? Honestly, no. If you hire well you want to give people room to grow and stretch. The worst thing you can do is to staff up too quickly, only to have frustrate your stars who are ready for more in a year (or worse yet, sudden shift in the business which requires you to scale back projects). Having too many PMs will also lead to more work being generated, you then need to resource. It’s far better to have PMs that have 20% too much to do than 20% too little. My rule of thumb is: everyone should be just uncomfortable enough with their scope that they drop a few things, but not so uncomfortable that they burn out. *  Autonomy. People choose a career in product management because they want to make or be at the center of product decisions. Allowing them to do so is one of the most important things you can do to keep them motivated. As a people leader your jobs is to set goals, give context, guide, and identify blindspots. It’s not to operate the product for the PMs on your team. At Netflix we have a value, “Context over control” - leaders should focus first & foremost on setting context so others can make decisions vs. making decisions for them. *  Actually care about them. When I think about the best managers I’ve had they have one intangible thing in common - I felt on a deep level that they actually, genuinely cared about me. This had a ripple effect on every part of my job because I felt supported, was calmer, and did better work. Caring looks like regularly thinking about the growth & success of another person without being asked to. It looks like advocating for or elevating behind the scenes, especially if they are in a disadvantaged position. It’s something that you can’t fake.