What is the difference between Top 1% and Top 10%?

Initial article is titled as “What distinguishes the Top 1% of product managers from the Top 10%?” but “product manager” can be filling in for “businessman” or “scientist”, whatever, it will not shift a sense.

So, a Top 1% can do as follows:

* Think big. A Top 1% thinking won't be constrained by the resources available to them today or today's market environment. They'll explore large disruptive opportunities, and develop concrete plans for how to take advantage of them. Goals are dreams that are captured, pinned down and action-planned. Followed through by action, they ensure success.

* Communicate. A Top 1% can make a case that is impossible to refute or ignore. They'll use data appropriately, when available, but they'll also tap into other biases, beliefs, and triggers that can convince the powers that be to part with headcount, money, or other resources and then get out of the way.

* Simplify. A Top 1% knows how to get 80% of the value out of any feature or project with 20% of the effort. They do so repeatedly, launching more and achieving compounding effects for the product or business.

* Prioritize. A Top 1% knows how to sequence projects. They balance quick wins vs. platform investments appropriately. They balance offense and defense projects appropriately. Offense projects are ones that grow the business. Defense projects are ones that protect and remove drag on the business (operations, reducing technical debt, fixing bugs, etc.).

* Forecast and measure. A Top 1% can forecast the approximate benefit of a project, and can do so efficiently by applying their experience and leveraging comparable benchmarks. They also measure benefit once projects are launched, and factor those learnings into their future prioritization and forecasts.

* Execute. A Top 1% grinds it out. They do whatever is necessary to ship. They recognize no specific bounds to the scope of their role. As necessary, they recruit, they produce buttons, they escalate, they tussle with internal counsel. They will never say that they do not know how to do something.

* Understand technical trade-offs. A Top 1% does not need to know technical details. They do need to be able to roughly understand the technical complexity of the features they put on the backlog, without any costing input from technicians. They should partner with technicians to make the right technical trade-offs (i.e. compromise).

* Understand good design. A Top 1% doesn't have to be a designer, but they should appreciate great design and be able to distinguish it from good design. They should also be able to articulate the difference to their design counterparts, or at least articulate directions to pursue to go from good to great. Important: “great design” for users, but not for managers or team members.

* Write effective copy. A Top 1% should understand the product so good to be able to write concise copy that gets the job done: from description, continuing with wake-up calls and finishing with menu and buttons. They should understand that each additional word they write dilutes the value of the previous ones.

This article was created on the base of “What distinguishes the Top 1% of product managers from the Top 10%?” by Ian McAllister, Director at Airbnb. 

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