Thinking like a Product Manager

In this week's article of our ongoing series - we talk about the Product Manager mindset, and how it can help you in getting efficient at the workplace.

In case you want to check out my previous notes - BA-1,?BA-2, PM-1.

Some people will say that the Product Managers are like a mini-CEO of their products. That’s right in some ways, since a PM takes holistic responsibility for the product, from the little details to the big picture. The PM needs to set a vision and strategy, and he defines success and makes decisions. However, most of the time, product managers don’t have direct authority over the people on their team. Hence, it is important to know the behaviors and mindsets of the people you work with.

In this article, I will try and put up a representation of some of my learnings on these mindsets, which is gathered while going through some of the books and a plethora of articles online, along with practical experiences; in a laconic way. Similar to what I learned from Ken Sandy, I have put down a diagram of how these mindsets relate to each other. My intention is not to get into a lot of theory, but to try and explain this succinctly.

When you are able to identify your own mindset as a PM, it will help you evolve. And when you are able to understand the mindset of people around you, it helps you operate much better and more effectively.

There is a natural linear progression from one mindset to another, following the product development lifecycle. For example, you might start with the Dreamer mindset when imagining possibilities, then move into the Analyst mindset to gather data and insights during discovery, then test out ideas in the Detective mindset, before finally drumming up excitement in the Crusader mindset.

You would generally be good in parts in these 4 quadrants. However, there will be a point in your career where you would be excellent in one of the quadrants, and be good at balancing in all others. Crusader might be inspirational, but you will only get to that point with experience, and after a hell of a lot of product or project failures. You need to know what are the dominant types of people you workaround because you have to balance out the people whom you work with. For example, in my view, people who fall in the quadrant of Dreamers are generally entrepreneurs and founders are mostly idea builders.

While successful managers don't need to master all four behaviors or mindsets at once, they must be willing to go outside of their comfort zones – their go-to strengths – and balance their thinking.?

"Do things that are outside of your comfort zone. If you’re not particularly extroverted, get up on stage, evangelize your product, and embrace going on customer interviews instead of staying at your work desk and burying your head in data. Try to leverage the strengths of others. If you are not a natural Challenger, go and find those engineers who always poke holes in everything that you do – and learn from them. This is how you become a better product manager."

More on the product management and business analysis to follow on future posts in the series. I look forward to your feedback.