A good product manager (PM) is someone who can bridge the gap between the business, technology, and user needs to create successful products. They manage product lifecycle from concept to launch, ensuring the final product delivers value to customers while aligning with business goals.
Here’s a breakdown of what makes a good product manager, from hard skills to the more subtle, less tangible traits that differentiate the good from the great.
Hard Skills for a Product Manager
- Market Research & Customer Understanding
- Conducting market research and understanding user needs are foundational to product management. PMs need the ability to perform competitive analysis, customer interviews, and surveys to gather insights that drive product decisions.
- Tools: Market research tools (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Typeform), analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel), customer feedback software (e.g., Intercom, Zendesk).
- Roadmapping & Prioritization
- PMs must create clear, actionable product roadmaps that align with company goals and customer needs. They should be proficient at prioritization frameworks (e.g., RICE, MoSCoW, or Kano model) to make tough decisions about what to build first.
- Tools: Product roadmap software (e.g., Aha!, Productboard), JIRA, Trello.
- Data Analysis & Metrics
- Strong analytical skills are a must. A good PM should be able to analyze user behavior, track KPIs, and assess the success of a product post-launch. Metrics like user retention, churn, DAU/MAU, conversion rates, and NPS are commonly tracked.
- Tools: Google Analytics, Tableau, SQL (basic), Excel/Sheets, Looker.
- Technical Knowledge
- While PMs don’t need to be coders, a basic understanding of technical concepts (like APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure) helps them communicate effectively with engineering teams and make informed decisions.
- Familiarity with software development practices (e.g., Agile, Scrum) is also important.
- Tools: GitHub, Jira (for understanding sprints and workflows).
- Project Management & Delivery
- Managing timelines, ensuring features are delivered on schedule, and balancing scope are key. Familiarity with agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) is crucial.
- Tools: Jira, Asana, Monday.com, Basecamp, Slack.
- Financial Acumen
- Understanding the financial side of product management (e.g., budget, cost structure, pricing models) is important to ensure product profitability and to make informed trade-offs.
Subtle Skills that Take a PM from Good to Great
- Customer Empathy
- Great PMs don’t just collect data; they develop a deep, empathetic understanding of users. They are able to see the world through the eyes of their customers and anticipate both their needs and pain points. This helps ensure the product truly resonates with users and delivers a delightful experience.
- Ability to synthesize both qualitative (user stories, customer interviews) and quantitative (data, usage analytics) insights.
- Vision & Strategic Thinking
- Great PMs have the ability to see the big picture. They not only focus on incremental improvements but also create a long-term vision for the product that aligns with the company’s mission and broader market trends.
- They need to be able to communicate this vision clearly to stakeholders and motivate teams.
- Influence Without Authority
- PMs often lead cross-functional teams without direct authority, so the ability to influence and align stakeholders is crucial. This requires excellent communication, persuasion, and negotiation skills.
- Great PMs know how to build relationships, manage conflicts, and rally people around a common cause.
- Decisiveness & Comfort with Ambiguity
- Product managers frequently face uncertain situations and have to make tough decisions with incomplete information. The ability to act decisively and make the best decision in the face of ambiguity is a hallmark of great PMs.
- They balance risks, take calculated bets, and learn from failures rather than waiting for perfect information.
- Prioritization & Trade-offs
- A great PM is an expert at prioritizing what not to do, as much as what to focus on. They make difficult trade-offs every day, whether it’s balancing user needs, business goals, and technical constraints.
- They understand that it’s impossible to satisfy every stakeholder or user perfectly, and they can make hard decisions on where to focus resources.
- Resilience & Adaptability
- The road to successful products is often filled with failures, pivots, and unexpected setbacks. Great PMs are resilient and able to recover quickly from setbacks, adapt to changing circumstances, and keep the team motivated during tough times.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication
- PMs work with multiple departments (engineering, design, sales, marketing, customer support) to align on goals and deliverables. The ability to facilitate collaboration, communicate effectively with all teams, and ensure alignment is key.
- They also need to translate complex technical concepts into simple terms for non-technical stakeholders (e.g., executives, marketing, sales).
- User-Centered Thinking
- Great PMs not only care about product features but also about how those features solve real problems. They maintain a user-centered mindset, ensuring the product delivers tangible value to end users.
- This involves continuous feedback loops and iterations, even after launch.
- Conflict Resolution
- Product managers are often faced with competing interests: sales vs. engineering, user needs vs. business constraints. Great PMs have a knack for mediating conflicts, finding win-win solutions, and managing tensions productively.
- Storytelling & Presentation
- PMs need to be able to tell a compelling story about the product, whether they’re pitching to executives, selling to customers, or rallying the team. A great PM knows how to weave data and vision into a narrative that drives action.
- They are skilled at creating clear, concise presentations and are able to convey complex ideas in an engaging way.
Key Behaviors of a Great PM
- Curiosity: A constant desire to learn, whether it’s understanding user pain points, exploring new technologies, or researching market trends.
- Proactivity: Anticipating issues before they arise and taking the initiative to solve problems.
- Self-Awareness: Knowing their strengths and weaknesses and continuously seeking personal and professional growth.
- Collaboration: Strong teamwork skills, as PMs need to align, negotiate, and collaborate across departments.
- Leadership: Inspiring teams, aligning vision, and pushing the product forward while motivating others to contribute to its success.
In Summary
A good product manager combines strong technical, analytical, and organizational skills with a customer-focused mindset and the ability to lead without direct authority. However, a great product manager excels by demonstrating deep empathy, strategic vision, influence, adaptability, and the ability to make tough decisions amidst uncertainty.
Becoming a great PM requires not just mastering the hard skills but also honing these subtle, often intangible qualities that help you inspire teams, drive results, and build products that truly meet the needs of users and the business.
About the Author
Robert Erickson
Robert is seasoned high-tech software executive with more than 30 years of proven industry experience, both in entrepreneurial and enterprise corporate settings. With proven track record of bringing to market dozens of enterprise-class commercial platforms and products, Robert has built and led high-velocity product and strategy teams of product managers, developers, sales teams, marketing teams and delivery units.
His mission is to help enterprises achieve sustainable competitive growth through innovation, agility, and customer-centric value.
@Robert – www.linkedin/in/ericksonrw
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