What are the top 3 most technical skills a Product Manager needs to have? How do you hone these skills and talk about them during interviews?

Perhaps a contrarian take, but technical skills aren't the most critical for the majority of PM roles out there, except for deeply technical products or platform positions. For the general PM role, it's much more important to demonstrate your ability to delve into customer problems, set strategy, execute, and drive impact that aligns with your organization's mission and vision.

Technical skills matter, but they are secondary. They usually revolve around your ability to work with engineering counterparts and understand enough technical concepts to make trade-offs, and to work with data and perform analysis for decision-making. In my experience, both of these skills are often inquired about directly.

1. Active Listening: Product managers must possess exceptional listening skills to effectively comprehend various stakeholders' perspectives, market trends, and customer feedback. Active listening informs strategic product decisions and enables effective coaching of fellow product managers. Demonstrating the ability to discern not only spoken but also unspoken cues is crucial for understanding colleagues' needs and offering relevant support and guidance.

2. Empathy and Interpersonal Skills: Cultivating empathy is indispensable for product managers, facilitating meaningful interactions with team members and fostering collaborative relationships. Empathetic understanding of individual product managers fosters trust and rapport, enhancing teamwork and maximizing each team member's potential. Strong interpersonal skills enable product managers to navigate diverse personalities and communication styles, thereby facilitating smoother collaboration and more productive outcomes.

3. Trustworthiness and Reliability: Establishing trust is fundamental for product managers to inspire confidence among stakeholders, team members, and customers. Consistent reliability in delivering on commitments and upholding professional integrity reinforces credibility and fosters a conducive environment for successful product development. Trustworthiness is not only integral to individual effectiveness but also instrumental in building a culture of transparency and accountability within the product management ecosystem.

If I were to narrow it down even though its not necessary to learn much technicality, Id focus on:

1. data analytics and interpretation - because good PMs mix qualitative with quantitative data to decide what features to have, things to drop, etc Most analytics platforms like Mixpanel and Amplitude offer courses and resources on how to use their products can be a good starting point.

   For the interview here, just share examples where data directly influenced product decisions. Mention specific tools used, metrics tracked, and how the insights you had led to a successful or failed product outcome.

2. Understand what the engineering team is talking about and how they communicate. Its a good idea to learn more about the concepts or lingo they use.

3. Great to know software dev methodologies like Agile and Scrum.

For the interview, mention that you had planned sprints with others and backlog prioritization using JIRA. How that came to life and what resulted can be a good point to showcase your affluence in the area.

I dont think its a must to learn in-depth technical skills as opposed to knowing how to strategize, roadmap, communicate, and other key metrics of a PM.