If you asked me a year ago if I knew what a product manager did, I would tell you I had no idea. If you asked me the same question after I read the first chapter of Matt Lay’s Product Management in Practice, I would still have absolutely no idea. What am I getting myself into? I am quite honestly aspiring for a job that I hardly understand. But to be completely honest, I feel like I can understand the role of a product manager in the midst of the ambiguity. For me a product manager reminds me a lot of being a parent to a bunch of grown children who are working on a project together. You can’t tell them exactly what to do because they’re grown up and have their own set of skills and qualifications. As a product manager, you must learn to trust your team and find ways to bring the best out in each one. Originally I thought product management had more technical skills, but I am slowly learning that the introduction of soft skills is what keeps the team together and moving forward. Some traits that I think are important to have as an product manager are:
- Trust – without trust, you end up ruining your team’s confidence and end up taking on responsibilities that could be done better with your team.
- Desire to improve – product managers aren’t just dealing critiques. Rather than are consistently receiving critiques. it is important to see these as opportunities of growth rather than perpetual flaws.
- Malleability – you gotta do what you gotta do. Product managers must be ok with a constantly changing role, even when their team members face consistency. Rather than being jealous, they must be excited for new challenges that come with change.
- Communication – product managers are the glue that hold designers and developers together. Without communication skills, the product falls apart and the only one who can take responsibility is the PM.
Question: How do you know when you are going beyond your role as a PM? More specifically, how do you know when you are being exploited as a PM at a company and need to draw boundaries/leave a company? Without solid job descriptions, it seems hard to do so.
