“The product manager is like the CEO of the product”.
“No two days in the life of a product manager will look the same”.
“You can study in school to become a software engineer, but you cannot study to become a product manager. You learn it on the job.”
The preface and first chapter of Product Management in Practice debunk these statements that I’ve heard hundreds of times when chatting with my mentors and upperclassmen friends. Day after day, I hear these statements and a wave of ambiguity crashes into me; I say that I dream of being a product manager, but what, really, does a product manager do?
I view the product manager role as the bridge between the creatives, the engineers, and the marketers. The creatives speak their own language, as do the engineers and the marketers. The creatives incorporate the user experience and user design (UX/UI) into the product, while the engineers make the technical aspects come to life. The marketers entice individuals to purchase or utilize the product. Now, here’s when the product manager comes in. They can, ideally, speak the language of the creatives, engineers, and marketers, such that they should be able to oversee, support, and intervene in these groups at any point of the product life cycle.
One part of the reading that particularly resonated with me was how the responsibilities and qualifications of product managers differ at different tech companies. For instance, the reading noted that Amazon prefers individuals with an MBA, while Google is particularly interested in recent Stanford grads.
In terms of the day to day life of a product manager, there truly is no concrete answer. However, there are some characteristics of a strong product manager, such as being able to adapt, improvise, problem solve, think creatively, and communicate effectively in a way that the words are comprehensible to both a techy and fuzzy individual.
Additionally, the reading helped clarify the term “product manager” in general. More specifically, it helped clarify the meaning of the “manager” part of “product manager”. A product manager is not superior to an engineer. Rather, they manage the product.
After reading this first chapter, my biggest questions (as of right now) are: “How can a product manager adapt into other roles in later parts of their career? What does a career trajectory for an experienced PM look like? How can an undergraduate student develop the skills necessary to excel as a product manager? More specifically, what are these technical and business skills?”
With all of this in mind, I believe that one of the biggest characteristics of a product manager is the ability and willingness to learn and grow from experience.
