What does it take to become a great Product Manager?

According to marketing consultants, when evaluating a Product Manager (PM), core abilities, emotional intelligence (EQ), and organisational fit are the three major aspects to examine. The best project managers have mastered the necessary skills, have a high level of emotional intelligence, and work for the best company. The latter demands taking into account the organisation's technical skill needs, the PM role's ideology, the stage of the company, and your relationship with top management.

Core Abilities/Skills:?

There are a number of fundamental qualities that every PM should possess, many of which may be learned in the classroom, but the majority are gained via experience, exposure to positive role models, and mentoring. These are some instances of these abilities:

1. Performing user testing and customer interviews
2. Sprinting for design
3. Prioritization of features and development of a route map
4. Resource allocation is an art (not a science!)
5. Carrying out market research
6. Converting business needs into technical requirements, and vice versa
7. Modelling of pricing and revenue
8. Establishing and monitoring success metrics

Emotional Intelligence:

A decent Product Manager may know the dos and don'ts of a customer interview, but the best PMs can empathize with consumers in that conversation, are aware of their body language and emotions, and can deduce the pain spots that the product or feature will address. A PM with a high EQ has strong internal relationships and a good grasp of how to overcome both internal and external obstacles in order to deliver a quality product.

Organisational Fit:

Is it true that if the finest project managers have well-developed core competencies and a high EQ, they will be successful no matter where they work? Possibly not. In reality, finding the perfect organisation to apply these skills and personality qualities to is what will eventually ensure success.

Relationship between PM and the founder/CTO/CEO:

It's crucial to know how involved the founder/CEO/CTO is in the product development process, especially in early-stage organisations. If they're highly committed, the PM function may be more of a support role, helping them flesh out ideas or validate concepts with clients rather than generating and pushing their own ideas. According to some business experts,? For some PMs who enjoy collaborating on product innovation with founders and C-level executives, this may be a lot of fun. Other PMs, on the other hand, may find it highly aggravating if they desire to have greater control over product direction. If the more technical founders or C-levels prefer to work directly with engineers, it can be difficult.

This can leave PMs in the dark or undermine them (inadvertently), generating not just personal difficulties but also delays. If you're thinking about taking on a PM post where you'll be working directly with the founding leadership team, find out what they anticipate from the PM function and see if it's a good fit.

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of What it takes to become a great product manager.

Please feel free to contact me at www.iamsaranshgupta.com if you are seeking any marketing advice or consultation.