What makes a good Product Manager?

Because it's often easy for a product manager to get settled into a mode that's reactive and passive, I've put this together as a way to remind myself periodically what a good product manager is and what I should really be focusing on.?

If this is useful to others, feel free to use it.?Or if you have other things to add to this, please share.

As usually the case, 10 makes for a good number of items in such a list :)

1. Has a vision for the product

Vision is one of those overloaded terms.?I would refine it to say a vision for the evolution of the product.?A good PM will know what their product will look like 3 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years down the road.?It may not stick (almost never does), but without it, the product decision-making is going to be myopic or paralyzed.

2. Knows what the customers are thinking and going through

We often tend to focus on the expansion and contraction cycles that are happening within our industry, but neglect to pay attention to the customer's dynamics.?A good PM will try to get into the customer's head and stay there.

3. Knows what the (fringe) competitors are doing

Goes without saying, but we often get enthralled within our own space, or pay attention to a few incumbent competitors, but miss out on the new ones that enter the space from another direction - those are the ones that we really need to look out for as they are bringing the innovation in order to get into the space.

4. Knows what the other product orgs are doing

Having a product that doesn't look consistent with the rest of the company's strategy, products, messaging, or roadmaps looks bad, and results in friction and attrition. As a product manager, having a clear idea what the other groups are doing that could influence my strategy is paramount. Communicating own product strategy to the other orgs is time consuming but necessary. Calling out and escalating any inconsistencies is painful, but has to be done.

5. Up on the latest trends and tech

Products become irrelevant by solving yesterday's problems. And sure, there are plenty of profitable products out there that grabbed the market share when they were still relevant and are now riding out the moat, but it's a death spiral, plus face it - focusing on legacy doesn't keep your or your team's skills sharp.

6. Has a set of hypotheses that you're trying to verify

If you don't, you're not trying hard enough to keep the product relevant and on the cutting edge. Hypothesis should be aggressive enough to move the needle if they are true.

7. Has a constantly developing set of product KPI's / metrics

There's always more to be measured and understood about the customer behavior. A good product manager will keep instrumenting the observability checkpoints into the product and customer journey to understand what's going on and avoid being blind-sighted by change in user behavior.

8. Has a clear release plan

There are many ways orgs do roadmapping and feature prioritization - we all know that. The way I, as a PM can make a difference is by having a crisp product progression that I can communicate. In the absence of it, the loudest voices and/or randomness will take over.

9. Builds consensus across the org

That usually requires knowing what the friction points are - be it vision, working with sales, working with engineering, etc. Having a documented framework that can be shared across the various problems helps.

10. Hires themselves

Guess, that's the last one I want to try to keep thinking about - would I hire myself? Am I producing enough value for the org? Am I still the best person for the job?