Before the reading, I had a misguided conception that product managers were only there to ensure that software programmers met their deadlines. Nevertheless, the commentary provided by Matt Lemay has certainly made my perspective much more nuanced. Indeed, when describing the role of PMs Lemay was purposefully nebulous, describing it as “doing lots of things at different times”. However I believe this was a great way to sum it up. From what I’ve gathered from chapter 1, PMs essentially act as river guides and coordinators for their product teams. They’re team leaders who don’t get their hands dirty with actual programming, but rather grease the gears such that projects are organized and are churned out with relative efficiency. And with this comes a high need for soft skills and emotional intelligence – which is apparently much more important to have than I thought previously for PM. For example learning how to manage disgruntled engineers, burnout and your own behavior appears to be key for success in the PM role. I honestly thought the section on behaviors to avoid doing as a PM were quite humorous, I’ve had my fair share of experience with people that behave similarly to the Lemay’s listed archetypes in leadership roles in sport and finance. Finally it was very eye-opening to see that many successful product managers actually come from a diverse set of backgrounds, making me entertain the idea of switching into this profession eventually. I was also shocked to see that the hours were 40-50 hours a week, making this role all the more interesting!
I would ask Matt how common it is for people with a background in finance to switch into product management? How important are technical skills and experience with software programming roles?
