## What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager ### What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager  #### Metadata * Author: [[hbr.org]] * Full Title: What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager * Category: #articles * URL: <https://hbr.org/2017/12/what-it-takes-to-become-a-great-product-manager> #### Highlights * Aspiring PMs should consider three primary factors when evaluating a role: core competencies, emotional intelligence (EQ), and company fit. The best PMs I have worked with have mastered the core competencies, have a high EQ, and work for the right company for them. Beyond shipping new features on a regular cadence and keeping the peace between engineering and the design team, the best PMs create products with strong user adoption that have exponential revenue growth and perhaps even disrupt an industry. * Core Competencies There are core competencies that every PM must have — many of which can start in the classroom — but most are developed with experience, good role models, and mentoring. Some examples of these competencies include: conducting customer interviews and user testing running design sprints feature prioritization and road map planning the art of resource allocation (it is not a science!) performing market assessments translating business-to-technical requirements, and vice versa pricing and revenue modeling defining and tracking success metrics * The PM-engineering partnership. In these cases, there is a strong yin-yang between PM and engineering, with joint discovery, decision-making, and shared accountability. Engineers join PMs in customer interviews, and PMs are in sprint meetings to help unblock tasks or clarify requirements. But the two roles respect the line where one starts and the other stops. PMs understand what's being coded but don't tell engineers how to code, and engineers have empathy for customers' needs but leave the prioritization to the PMs. Pro: A streamlined prioritization process that values technical debt and plumbing projects; better design processes leading to a more positive user experience; higher-performing teams with improved product velocity, quality, and, typically, happier customers. Con: Breakthrough innovation may not get greenlit; time-to-market may seem to lag (though I'd argue that what's released is far better aligned with customer needs and more likely to successfully scale). * Con: There's typically little to no mentorship, role models, or best practices within the company. (You may have to seek it externally.) Budgets are typically tight, and PMs may not have the requisite experience to succeed at some of the things they're tasked to do. # What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager  ## Metadata - Author: [[hbr.org]] - Full Title: What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager - Category: #articles - URL: https://hbr.org/2017/12/what-it-takes-to-become-a-great-product-manager ## Highlights - Aspiring PMs should consider three primary factors when evaluating a role: core competencies, emotional intelligence (EQ), and company fit. The best PMs I have worked with have mastered the core competencies, have a high EQ, and work for the right company for them. Beyond shipping new features on a regular cadence and keeping the peace between engineering and the design team, the best PMs create products with strong user adoption that have exponential revenue growth and perhaps even disrupt an industry. - Core Competencies There are core competencies that every PM must have — many of which can start in the classroom — but most are developed with experience, good role models, and mentoring. Some examples of these competencies include: conducting customer interviews and user testing running design sprints feature prioritization and road map planning the art of resource allocation (it is not a science!) performing market assessments translating business-to-technical requirements, and vice versa pricing and revenue modeling defining and tracking success metrics - The PM-engineering partnership. In these cases, there is a strong yin-yang between PM and engineering, with joint discovery, decision-making, and shared accountability. Engineers join PMs in customer interviews, and PMs are in sprint meetings to help unblock tasks or clarify requirements. But the two roles respect the line where one starts and the other stops. PMs understand what’s being coded but don’t tell engineers how to code, and engineers have empathy for customers’ needs but leave the prioritization to the PMs. Pro: A streamlined prioritization process that values technical debt and plumbing projects; better design processes leading to a more positive user experience; higher-performing teams with improved product velocity, quality, and, typically, happier customers. Con: Breakthrough innovation may not get greenlit; time-to-market may seem to lag (though I’d argue that what’s released is far better aligned with customer needs and more likely to successfully scale). - Con: There’s typically little to no mentorship, role models, or best practices within the company. (You may have to seek it externally.) Budgets are typically tight, and PMs may not have the requisite experience to succeed at some of the things they’re tasked to do.