What makes a great Product Manager?
Here are some common traits
What makes a great product manager? Is it enough to have great ideas, a technical background, or be able to read a market? No. You also need to have the right attitude and a specific set of traits that allows you to be like Gumby - the stretchable glue of a successful product team. (I’ve dated myself there.)
In this newsletter, I will share some traits that great product managers should have.
1. The voice of the customer
A great product manager is a customer advocate, not a customer proxy. They understand the customer’s needs and behavior, not through indirect research, but through direct contact. They talk to customers, listen to them, watch them, and empathize with them. They also involve customers in the product development process, by co-creating, testing, and iterating with them. (Ahem, read Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres.) They build products for customers, not for themselves.
2. Is a leader
A great product manager is a leader. They inspire and empower the team to achieve the best business outcomes. They collaborate with stakeholders to set the vision, the strategy, and the goals, and then let the team figure out the best way to get there. They also serve the team, by providing them with the resources, feedback, and support they need. They remove obstacles, resolve conflicts, and celebrate successes.
3. Balances data and intuition
A great product manager is a data-driven decision-maker. They use data and experiment-driven development to validate their hypotheses, to measure their impact, and to optimize their performance. They use data to inform their decisions and to guide their actions. They also respect intuition and understand that innovation sometimes requires big leaps with little to no data to de-risk.
4. Fosters creativity
A great product manager is a creative thinker, not a copycat. They have great product ideas, based on their understanding of the customer, the market, and the technology. They are always looking for new ways to solve problems, to create value, and to delight users. They also foster the team’s creativity, by encouraging them to share their ideas, to experiment, and to learn. They create a culture of innovation, where everyone can contribute and collaborate.
5. Ships
A great product manager is a doer, not a talker. They ship. They don’t wait for the perfect product or the perfect time. They ship early and often. They ship to learn, to improve, and to deliver. They ship to solve problems, create value, and delight users.
6. Communicates
A great product manager is a communicator. They manage everyone’s expectations while making people feel listened to and respected. They communicate clearly and frequently with key stakeholders. People who work with great product managers will be aligned with the vision, mission, and strategy of the company and the product.
7. Focuses and simplifies
A great product manager is focused. They focus on the most important customer problems and are ruthless in solving those problems in the simplest, most delightful way possible. They simplify the product, by removing the unnecessary and the distracting.Â
8. AdaptsÂ
A great product manager can adapt as conditions change. They plan, but plan flexibly and adapt to new learning and unexpected feedback. They measure their progress by the outcomes they achieve, not by the features they deliver. They also manage scope and timing effectively, by ruthlessly prioritizing and communicating realistic expectations. They deliver what matters when it matters.
9. Understands strategy
A great product manager is a business-savvy strategist. They care about all the steps to making their product a success - before and after launch. They understand the business model, the value proposition, and the go-to-market strategy. They collaborate with the sales, marketing, and business development teams, to define the target market, the pricing, the positioning, and the distribution. They also monitor the market trends, customer feedback, and the competitive landscape, to identify the opportunities and threats.
These are some of the traits of a good product manager, based on my experience and observation. Of course, there are many more, and they may vary depending on the context, the product, and the organization. But I believe that these are some of the most fundamental and universal ones, that can help you become a better product manager.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and found it useful and insightful. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please let me know. I would love to hear from you. And if you want to learn more about product management, please subscribe to my newsletter, where I share more of what I’ve learned. Thank you for reading!