What are the required hard skills for a product manager?

Answered another question about hard skills. I don't think its generally necessary for PMs to read code but I do think it is important for you to understand the concept/principles. An overview would be very helpful in making you a good partner to your other more technical peers. It also helps when talking through any blockers or considerations to keep in mind.

There are different opinions on having an engineering background and the ability to write code for Product people. My perspective is that its easier to come together with your engineering partners when they are empowered to drive the code level details and you are empowered to define the requirements so you can make technical tradeoffs together but each have your respective ownership. I've seen collisions when product managers also are engineers and they get too deep into the technical details and are stepping on engineering's toes. However, a basic understanding of code is helpful. For example, being able to edit a markdown file, write SQL or set a feature flag is something that you'll likely have to do so getting a light understanding is helpful.