The product manager is the connect between the customers and the technical team. He/she understands and speaks the languages of the developers and designers and is a bridge between the market and the product. As a Product Manager, demands are placed on you from many different areas – from engineering and design, to marketing and business development. Here are a few things that make one a good product manager-
Good tech knowledge-
It’s a given that, as the product owner, the product manager needs to understand the product in and out. A solid understanding of front-end and back-end technology empowers a manager to make better product decisions and lead the team to better outcomes, faster.
Understanding the design well-
With so many alternative products with beautiful designs around, the necessity for simple, slick, and beautiful design is becoming even more critical. Thus, building a product that has the minimum functionality required to meet customers’ needs and is user friendly should be on top of any company’s priorities list. As a product manager, you’ll often have significant influence on design decisions. Let yourself and your product stand out by making the best design choices.
Present problems and not solutions-
As a Product Manager, it’s your job to edit and prioritise solving problems – but it’s not your job to come up with the final solution. Good Product Managers approach engineers with obstacles and questions, and listen to the solutions and trade-offs proposed by them. You can help a developer out by respecting his or her ability to think about the problem and deliver a solution.
Your decisions need to be data driven-
Understand your customers, their feedback, your competitors, the market and the industry you’re operating in. Engineers like to be in safe hands – they rely on you to know the product well. They want to know that the decision about what they are going to build has been based on data collected in a reliable way – from real customers and real experiments. And data-driven decision making doesn’t have to be limited to product features.
Good communication-
Communication skills are by far the most important part if this job. You are the bridge between literally all teams and your customers. You should be able to understand the requirements of everyone and be able to explain the developer and designers the needs according to the data.