How can you stand out as a Product Manager?

To stand out as a product manager, you need to have: 1. Deep Product Understanding: Know your product, market, and user needs thoroughly. 2. User-Centric Mindset: Prioritize user needs and seek consistent feedback. 3. Effective Communication: Communicate clearly with teams and stakeholders. 4. Data-Driven Decisions: Use data for informed decision-making. 5. Leadership Skills: Inspire and lead teams effectively. 6. Adaptability: Be flexible in response to changes and challenges. 7. Continuous Learning: Stay updated on industry trends and technologies. 8. Networking: Build a strong professional network for insights and opportunities.

A Product Manager can stand out in their career in a few ways: 1. Seek out bigger problems to solve them simply. 2. Embrace a scrappy, founder mindset when it comes to validation. Not every hypothesis requires a lengthy, resource-intensive project. 3. Have high agency and stop making excuses about circumstances. 4. Be a T-shaped Product Manager where, in addition to your depth of knowledge about one area, you also know something about a lot of different relevant topics in your business. 5. Have a strong point of view but also be flexible to embrace other ideas. This means having a low ego and a humble attitude. You don't have to have the best ideas and neither all the answers.

All great product managers possess these 5 skill sets: 1. Communication 2. Prioritization 3. Problem Solving 4. Customer Obsession 5. Design Thinking. Of course, they need to be modified based on the specific area and company one is working in. However, mastering these five skills is crucial.

"Know your domain." I could not agree more, BUT we live in an era in which people switch jobs and industries quickly....too quickly to get great at something. Getting great means committing. Committing the time and energy it takes to become an expert.

To stand out as a product Manager: 1.Visionary Thinking: Forge a long-term vision aligning with market trends and organizational goals to guide informed product decisions. 2.Entrepreneurial Mindset:Treat the product as your venture, fostering innovation, risk-taking, and value creation. 3.Cross-Functional Collaboration:Collaborate effectively across departments for harmonized product development. 4.Continuous Learning and Adaptation:Continuously learn and adapt to new information to remain effective in the dynamic product management landscape. 5.Networking and Industry Engagement:Engage with the product management community and industry networks for insights and mentorship

I agree to the thought that the Product manager needs to master the tools they use and put them to best use. But even more important is understanding the team. Identifying the strengths of the team and allocating work based on it would lead better work on the product being delivered

Mastering tools as a product manager is crucial for both efficiency & adaptability in today's competitive business environment. Tools for project management, communication & analytics facilitate streamlined workflows, real-time interactions & data-driven decision-making. However, these technical skills need to be balanced with soft skills, like stakeholder management & effective communication, to align with broader business goals. This synergy enhances product quality, team efficiency & ultimately, business outcomes. Mastery in tool use is also adaptive; it equips managers to rapidly respond to market changes & evolving customer needs, thereby enabling long-term success. Mastery is essential both technical & otherwise bottomline.

It's essential to learn to do more with less in a Product Management role. This job has a lot of responsibilities and requires wearing many hats. Adapting and mastering tools helps us to be more efficient and collaborative, creating a more effective environment for the team.

I disagree with the notion that a product manager must master all of their tools. A product manager who stands out is not the one who masters all the tools or even one tool perfectly. Instead, a product manager who stands out is one who is proficient in the tools they use, but also knows how to use them to collaborate with others and build better products. For example, you can use a simple tool like Painter, but only use the drawing function, and still get others to collaborate with you, have an efficient workflow, and build a great product from that tool.

As a Product Manager, the following four key points can help you distinguish yourself in the MSME sector within your country: 1. Local Market Knowledge: Have a thorough understanding of the particular difficulties and requirements faced by MSMEs and related consumers in your country. 2. A focus on the customer:?Customize goods to the unique requirements and inclinations of FI's and MSMEs. 3. Innovation and Financial Inclusion:?Encourage financial inclusion by leveraging partnerships and cutting-edge technology to improve accessibility. 4. Risk management and compliance:?Make sure all regulations are followed, and create risk-reduction plans that work for your market.

Sometimes product manager is above all in the department as he would know product from end to end. Training and coaching are highly important skills as a product manager you need to train the sales team to sell the product. Who would know the product and its competition best than the product manager

1. ???? ???????????????????? : Product Managers deal with lots of stakeholders every single day and expect them to support them and influence them. Before Asking them for Support, Be Empathetic with them & be genuine. 2. ???? ??????????????: If it doesn't require 60 mins meeting, don't schedule 60 mins meeting. If it can be done over email, do it. 3. ???? ????????????: You are NOT the CEO of the Product, you have ZERO authority over other team members, all your actions to get people around you to support you is through influence. 4. ???? ??????????????????????: Don't try the hidden agenda scheme, it is very fake, and people won't trust you. 5. ???? ????????????: If you have a different opinion, just say it, if you see things differently

The three important skills of a product manager. Product manager should require multidisciplinary skill set. The most important three skill sets that any product manager should have are Business knowledge, technical understanding (you don’t need to be a developer), user experience. Many of the product manager will have career ladder from marketing, product design or a software developer. They are sure to have alternate any two skillset but tend to lack in any one of them. The mastery of these skills is not only a professional requirement but also a catalyst for adept performance within the dynamic landscape of early-stage startups, where adaptability and a comprehensive skill set become indispensable for success.

Developing your skills is so crucial that it can almost never be over emphasised. As a PM, you'd have to coordinate well across different stakeholders who do understand the nuances of either the market demand or the technical feasibility, which is why the onus is on you to be an expert at various crucial skills to coordinate the work really well. Just through proper coordination, a good PM can easily 10X the productivity of operations

Beside needing certain skills, I want to mention 2 other qualities that can really help your career and the company you work for. First, be proactive: don't wait for your leaders to tell you what to do. Get ready for bigger responsibilities and solving bigger problems. Be humble, but not in a way that makes you lose confidence or let others decide everything for you. Having a humble mindset means understanding that you don't have all the answers, and your job is to guide the team to find solutions together.

Networking is one of the best skills a PM (or any other professional, really) should have and that's why: - being able to listen to other people and really understanding their desires, problems and goals is must-have for being being able to do a thoughtful discovery process; - knowing people from different backgrounds will allow you to know more products and how they are better prepared for different situations; - your ability to communicate with different stakeholders may be useful for connecting the people you're talking to the people they should be talking to.

Some of the best advice I received during my (Product) career was to focus on building my network. The ability to connect with colleagues, peers, competitors online and offline (f2f) is key for you to be an effective product leader. Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate. Always ask your network what you can do for them or with them. You'll be amazed to hear their insights. Subset of this would be also Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Building that network on foundation of trust through clear communication would take you a long way. When building your network - focus on trust (building) and executive alignment - so your message would come across even further. --Ohad

Product Management can feel very lonely, especially in a smaller organization where you don't have many peers at your level. This is because, whilst there are usually multiple engineers in a team, there will only be one product manager - you. It helps to build a network of PMs outside of the organization so you can better gauge what good looks like, as well as develop a support network to call when you are working through a challenge at work. Be sure to check out local meetup groups and conferences like ProductTank and MindTheProduct to connect with other PMs.

Networking is a fancy way to describe relationship-building. Here are some of the ways relationships have been crucial to my journey: 1) Unlocking opportunities in product management. In my journey, I transitioned into a product management role from another startup role, primarily due to relationships. I've observed that this is a common path to becoming a PM for many in the industry. So, consider how you can establish trust in any startup role, but with the right stakeholder relationships. 2) Doing your job well. To succeed as a PM, you need to be good at creating and maintaining relationships, especially when leading cross-functional teams. So, most successful PMs have high EQ; used to actively network internally.

To stand out as a product manager and advance your career, focus on honing your skills in customer understanding, data-driven decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration. Continuously communicate your product vision and strategy effectively, and build strong relationships with stakeholders. Seek out mentorship, attend networking events, and stay committed to your professional growth to excel in this competitive and rewarding field.

Few product managers put in the time to build a personal website. If you're one of the few, you will stand out. To maximize your chances of standing out, your personal website should include the following pages: 1. Home: Mini intro, a preview of the PM's projects, and a footer with contact information. 2. Projects: Case studies of your past internship or job experiences relating to delivering a product, which can include the problem, process, contributions, solution, and success metrics. 3. Contact: Form that allows visitors to easily contact you. This includes a name, email, message box for text input, and submit button. Adding a portfolio to your resume can insight meaningful conversation with recruiters, employers, and teammates.

Portfolios don't need to be a fancy web site either, remember we're not designers and no one expects us to be one. A link to a slide deck in Canva or Google Slides that states items like: - Skills -Education - Accomplishments - Testimonials from old and current coworkers - Highlighted Projects are all ways to get more of who you are and what you've done in front of a prospective employer or client outside of a resume, where being concise can be a detriment to the scope and depth of accomplishment.

**Metrics** it's the name of the game. Think about decisions that moved the needle for the product. Features that reduces churn, improvements that grew the conversion rate and share the stories, the process behind every decision. In the beginning, people hire you for your enthusiasm, but after for product decisions that changed the course of the product.

What you have done, your impact, and your achievements speak more about you than your skills. The important thing is not what you studied or what certificates you have, but why you have studied these subjects and taken such courses

Product management is driven by results, so it's crucial to highlight your impact. Build a personal website or blog to showcase your portfolio, achievements, challenges, and learnings. Share insights and stories on social media, podcasts, or publications to increase visibility. By effectively presenting your work and experiences, you can attract attention, earn admiration, and open doors to new opportunities.

Success of any product depends on its acceptance by the end users - sales & operations teams (internal) & target customers (external). The role of the product manager is to fine tune his craft till he hits this bullseye. Which again is the outcome of many innumerable iterations, situational course corrections, missed attempts, trial & errors and multiple stakeholder management. The process of learning and unlearning is pivotal. Ultimately a Product manager evolves through these experiences.

The Prime PM Skills: 1. Stakeholder Empathy - Don't just manage stakeholders, attempt to understand their POV. The 2 primary stakeholders for any product are Customer and Business (in that order) - learn to understand their needs 2. Continuous Learning & First Principle Mindset - Question assumptions. Be curious. Be willing to learn and unlearn at all times. Have a growth mindset and stay agile in adapting your approach to face new challenges 3. Be Iterative - Iterate and reiterate. Do this as many times as it takes. Do not fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy 4. User Acceptance - Everything boils down to the end users' experience and perceived usefulness of the product/ feature. Pay attention to UX & VoC 5. Be Analytical & Data Driven

A good PM is a buffer. You should be business savvy, yet empathetic to the user needs. You can have good ROI, bit it won’t mean that product is successful. You can soothe user’s pain points, but it might not bring expected compensation. Luckily, these two sides of product management are not mutually exclusive. It’s all just about balance. Nothing is more elegant then a win win between innovation and business. Think like a mogul, empathise like a human.

Dynamic mindset but static decision maker. It’s really important for a product manager to have a very open mindset no matter which stage your product is. You should be open to process dynamic variety of information from all other team mates and should be very confident and static in making a decision. It’s not I’m saying that they should not listen to others, might miss a valuable perspective from the team. They should be very confident and analytically strong in their approach and making decision especially in structuring the roadmap or prioritising the feature.

This is the most important aspect for success - Empathy, Analytical skills, Curiosity/Inquisitiveness, Continous learning, Critical thinking, Agile mindset, Knowing your biases - all are keys to becoming succesful in any stream and more so in product management. The ability to deeply understand the problem can only come from being mindful about these factors and consciously applying these principles while identifying, understanding and breaking down the problem.

(At the risk of being misunderstood), be a thought leader in the domain your product solves. If you're building a productivity app, become a productivity guru (or at least enough to sound like one) If you're building a Yoga app, practice Yoga everyday to talk about it (or at least make videos about history of Yoga) If you're building an app for the sales team, talk about sales techniques. The credibility of the product you build is linked to your own credibility of the domain you play in. Once your brand is established as an expert, your product's brand will be a lot more attractive.

Developing PM attitude is crucial & what I mean by this is: 1. Improving soft skills such as communication, facilitation, problem solving, stakeholder management, conflict management, presentation skills etc. 2. Reaching the right trade offs: knowing where to start and where to stop. 3. Remembering that PM is not a Prime Minister of Problemland where people throw blame for all failures. You need to strengthen your shield. 4. Developing resiliency which doesn't mean being victim. Take 10 bullets but then don't fall after that just start firing your ammunition. 5. Be a good leader: people person only can make you a good PM.

Somebody (Einstein?) once said not to 'judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree.' To stand out, Product Managers (PMs) may require different skills based on the specific company they work for and the industry they are in. Think of a 2x2 matrix: large vs. small company, B2B vs. B2C. Excelling in the different quadrants requires various skills: more industry knowledge (B2B), more testing and learning (B2C), more focus on processes (large company), and more scrappiness (small companies). With all the combinations, my two cents is to choose where-to-play and be laser-focused on the specific, primary capabilities required for success.

“Eat your own dogfood”; it is key to regularly use your own product, test it, check the performance, etc. By using it in the way your customers would use it, it allows you to spot possible improvements, highlight small bug or unexpected behavior to development colleagues, etc. Another consideration is to visit trade shows that are attender by you customers; direct customer feedback, discussing with sales colleagues, partners, prospects, etc. can help you when you are thinking about new value propositions, new functionalities, features, etc.

Standing out as PM means delivering VALUE for users, team, & company. One of the best analogies I've heard is - Like the mortar in a brick wall, best PMs fluidly fill gaps, strengthen the team, & deliver impactful outcomes!! 1) Be the Mortar: Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to overcome challenges 2) Industry Knowledge: Become a thought leader/ Product Guru in your domain to shape relevant features. 3) Adaptability: Adopt a lean, scrappy approach to iterate quickly and stay competitive. 4) Customer Empathy: Regularly use your product to uncover improvements. (Personal Fav!!) 5) Data-Driven Decisions: Use data for informed decision-making. Using these traits, one can stand out as a Product Manager.