3 Key Skills for Product Managers

 

    When is the last time you learned something new? 

    It was skiing, for me. I had no idea how to ski, I watched videos and read articles. I gained knowledge, but I still had to apply the knowledge on the ski hill before I figured it out. Nothing could replace the actual feeling of nervously sliding down the slopes for the first time. That's the difference between knowledge and experience. As you read through these skills keep remember the distinction between the two. Remind yourself, this is advice you still need to apply to gain your own experiences. That is how you improve. You can learn about them, read about them, or even practice them, but you have to apply them and stumble your way through your first experiences to understand them. Read and pursue growth within each area. If you do that, and find ways to apply them you will become a better product manager.

     It's fine to be like this owl and study up, but at some point you have to go fly!

Honestly, I found this studying owl and had to show you. No real reason why.

Influence

    Influence is a foundational skill of a product manager. If you read these other articles you will quickly see how often influence is going to be leveraged.

• Product Roadmap Development for Beginners
• Save Ideas from the Backlog Abyss

    Influence is

the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

    Manipulation is 

  the exercise of harmful influence over others

     It's nuanced but critical to understand that trying to leverage influence that you don't have can be perceived as manipulation.. We as product managers typically don't have any formal power over the people impacting the performance of our products. Developers, stakeholders, users, designers, product owners, sales teams, or financial approval. These teams typically don't report to a product manager. This means in order to execute the product vision and strategy we need to have massive amounts of influence. We need to constantly align others to where the product needs to go. We need to be able to say no. We need to be able to create excitement and support for new ideas. 

All of these things require influence.

    Great! Got it, influence is important, but how to I get better at it? 
Relationships, trust, and genuine interactions. These paired with expertise in your specific product will build your influence. 

I highly suggest reading How to Win Friends & Influence People it will give you more on this topic than I ever could.

Empathy

    It's the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. We have talked about empathy before! It's a skill impacting how you relate to everyone in your life.

• Flow State, Empathy, and Product Management

    Empathy aids you in relationships, trust, and genuine interactions. Sound familiar? It's a prerequisite for influence. You have to understand the "why" driving people's behavior. This allows you to strengthen the relationship enough for influence to take place. People don't care what you think they should do until they trust that you understand them. This is often why new managers struggle, relationships fail, and toddlers get so upset. They don't feel heard or understood enough for the influence to take place and it becomes stagnant, or in the case of the toddler hostile! 

    This is going to sound a bit weird, but it's the best way I have been able to grow my empathy skills. 

Parenting books

    You might not be a parent, but I'm 100% sure you have encountered an angry toddler in your lifetime. It's terrifying. The screaming, the tears, the drool....... the boogers. Parenting books like these have taught me the "why" for their behavior. They have equipped me with skills that are practical as a parent and as a product manager. I'm definitely not saying the people you work with are like toddlers, but it might feel that way sometimes! 

    If you want to grow in empathy, spend time with the toddlers in your family. Be the cool uncle, aunt, or friend. Be the better parent if that is you. As you become better think about the tools you're given and apply them to product management. You will be surprised. 

For this I suggest these books. 

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success not specific to parenting or product management, but has some great advice to understand what drives people.
• Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting
• The Wonder Weeks: A Stress-Free Guide to Your Baby's this book exposes so much about baby's and creates more empathy for what they are experiencing in their early development.

Business

    You've probably heard this line before. "Product managers are the CEO of their product." I don't actually agree with the definition, but for this specific skill it applies. As a product manager you have a responsibility to both your business and users. Each have needs and you have to be able to blend the two seamlessly together within your product strategy. Like a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Or any other perfect pairing of your choosing. Wine and cheese, granola and hiking, sunrises and coffee, or a boy and his dog. 

    You need to understand how your business provides value, differentiates itself, earns revenue, and delivers a product or service. Become educated in the entire value chain. Ensure your product creates leverage in the appropriate areas. When your product doesn't align to the business strategy you're on a dangerous path. Leading you to a lack luster product with a poor market fit.

    There are literally thousands of resources out there on how to do this, but here are a few I have found to be the most helpful. 

• Business Model Canvas fill this out for your business, ask questions of subject experts, and learn how you business fits into this model.
• Porters Five Forces to help you understand you position in the marketplace.
• The Personal MBA a fantastic book to help with your understanding of business.
• Your subject matter experts. Learn from them throughout your organization and
  become the master puzzler I talk about. 

That was fun, there are many more skills we need as product managers. Those should get you started! Don't forget to join the journey if you want free weekly articles like this in your inbox.