Product managers need to be constantly upgrading their product management skills to create an impact, with my experience as a product manager, I believe in four functional capabilities of a product manager;
Commercial leadership
Analytical thinking
Collaborative leadership
Product management methods & tools
let me briefly share what these capabilities are and what's expected from a product manager in every one of them.
Commercial Leadership
Commercial leadership in a nutshell is the ability to create a commercial impact and industry insights in terms of a company/product strategy. A product manager makes sure to use to best available resources when suggesting what to do next.
I always start with a bunch of questions that help me to decide on the initiative,
Why is the team working on the initiative?
What were the alternatives?
Why and how this the selected alternative chosen over the possible alternatives?
How will this initiative drive the defined product KPIs?
How will it impact the organization-level KPIs and contribute to the strategy?
These questions help me to link the product feature/product to the commercial KPIs (e.g. sales/ revenue/ NVM/ profit ) and companies vision and strategy. Asking these questions helps me to make recommendations which are considering customer problems, business needs, and practical constraints.
A product manager should be able to recommend relevant success metrics and track against them when working or launching an initiative.
Analytical Thinking
Analytical thinking is an ability to make easy-to-understand and actional data and facts-based recommendations.
There are three areas in analytical thinking;
Decomposes problems logically
Knows where and how to get the data to perform analysis and sanity check
Communicates effectively to stakeholders.
Qualitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods should be used when performing analysis, for example, ROI, cohort analysis, funnel analysis, competitive research, completing user journey maps, and conducting user interviews.
Collaborative Leadership
In a company with multiple product teams and business units, collaborative leadership is one of the most important skills required from a product manager. Collaborative leadership is the ability to generate impact as part of a larger team and organization.
Following are some of the expectations against this skill, which may vary for an organization.
Independently manage and consult senior stakeholders. Maintain a relevant network of peers to drive opportunities
Adjust communication to the target audience and communicate in an inspiring and actionable manner
Motivate others to work on initiatives, optimally involving team members during the 4Ds. Proactively communicates success, failures, and learnings.
Lead with direction, protection, and order
A product manager should be able to make sure that all the relevant stakeholders including the team, understand why we are solving the current customer problem and how it will help us to achieve the vision.
Here are some of the ingredients of leadership;
Direction: Communicate a clear and inspiring vision/purpose in a way that will make people share it and follow it. Set clear milestones and determine whether the team is on the right track.
Protection: Cultivate a culture of respect and continuous feedback in the team. Make the team feel safe and protected in a trusting environment.
Order: Create, define and implement clear structures and processes that enable everyone around to know what to do.
PM methods and tools
A product manager should be sound in using PM methods, tools, and techniques across all stages of the Product Development process. The product manager should be able to gain sufficient understanding of the problem before moving to solution space, yet not get stuck in analysis paralysis mode The Product Manager should understand the relevant disciplines (user research, product design, research, software engineering) and relevant technologies to drive cross-functional product development
The biggest ingredient for this skill is a question that I ask myself
Would your colleagues from Engineering / Research or Product Design say that you know how to leverage their expertise well?
That is it for this article. I hope you found this article useful, if you need any help please email me at info@nabeelansar.com
👋 Thanks for reading, See you next time
Comments