The role of a Product Manager
May 1, 2013
Once, a long time ago, me as well, I was a Product Manager. For the past years, I work with people in this role and every single day, I appreciate the responsibilities and challenges a Product Managemer is facing.
A PM is a chameleon, constantly adapting to what is needed to deliver a successful product. I recommend you to read the post "How to Work with PMs" providing a great cheat sheets for designers and other roles interacting with PMs, written by Julie Zhuo, Product design director @ Facebook.
I fully share her vision. Product Manager are exceptionally good at:
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Providing clear communication
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Being organized & understanding at every moment how their project is going
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Working well with a variety of people in a variety of roles
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Being communicative, organized, and easy to work with isn’t enough.
A good PM must also demonstrate the following skills:
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Execution: 1) successful relative to goals, 2) on-time relative to expectations, and 3) smooth relative to team experience
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Design thinking, i.e. understand, appreciate, and help drive a successful user experience Analytical, i.e. plan for and then draw conclusions from known inputs (quantitative data, user feedback, past experiences, etc) in order to craft a fact based roadmap for the future
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Product vision, i.e. read the market and current technologies, problems, and attitudes to come up with new and innovative solutions to problems GET IN TOUCH!
