What is most challenging about being a Platform Product Manager?

Given platform product managers are not directly building an application or a tool or a solution for a single use case, the most challenging aspect of being a platform product manager is multiple stakeholder management.

This multiple-stakeholder management requires platform PMs to have certain skills to be successful.

• Platform PM has to juggle individual stakeholders' product needs with platform-level goals. Platform PMs need to maintain a delicate balance between enabling individual product success and ensuring their roadmaps contribute to the overall platform strategy.

• Platform PMs need to have strong communication skills, empathy, and the ability to build consensus. More often than not, platform PMs have to deal with competing priorities. This requires platform PMs to be skilled at negotiation and decision-making.

• Platform PMs need to consider technical feasibility, business impact, and downstream consequences to make the right calls.