Prospect and qualify for Product Management

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you have probably heard other people refer to product managers as the ceo of the product i disagree because product managers simply don't have any direct authority over most of the things needed to make their products successful from user and data research through design and development to marketing sales and support so what should you consider if you are thinking of pursuing a product manager role aspiring product managers should consider three primary factors when evaluating a role core competencies emotional intelligence and company fit the best product managers have mastered the core competencies have a high eq and work for the right company for them beyond shipping new features on a regular cadence and keeping the peace between engineering and the design team the best product managers create products with strong user adoption that have exponential revenue growth and perhaps even disrupt an industry there are core competencies that every product manager must have most of these are developed with experience good role models and mentoring some examples of these competencies include conducting customer interviews and user testing feature prioritization and roadmap planning resource allocation translating business to technical requirements as well as defining and tracking success metrics a good product manager may know the best practices of the customer interviews but the best product managers have the ability to empathize with customers in that interview are tuned into their body language and emotions and can astutely suss out the pain points that the product or feature will address a product manager with a high eq has strong relationships within their organization and a keen sense of how to navigate both internal and external hurdles to ship a great product one of the most important characteristics of a great pm is their relationship management skills great pms shine at successful negotiation resolving conflicts and working with others toward a shared goal which is especially challenging when a pm is tasked with balancing the needs of customers resource constrained engineering teams and the company's revenue goals authentic and trusting relationships within an organization can lead to more support when additional funding is needed for a product or when an engineer must be swayed to include a quick bug fix in the next sprint outside an organization these skills could encourage existing customers to beta test a new feature for early feedback or to convince a target customer to try the mvp of a product still in stealth mode these relationship skills can also be what makes the difference between having angry customers because of a bug introduced into the product and those who say no worries we know you'll fix this being a product manager can be incredibly stressful the ceo wants one thing the engineering team another and customers have their own opinions about feature priorities product managers must understand customers emotions and concerns about their product as much as they understand the concerns of the sales team on how to sell that product or the support team on how to support it or the engineering team on how to build it managing tight deadlines revenue targets market demands prioritization conflicts and resource constraints all at once is not for the faint of heart if a pm cannot maintain their emotions and keep it cool under pressure they can quickly lose the confidence of all their constituents the best pm know how to push hard on the right priorities with urgency but without conveying a sense of panic or stress these product managers also know when to take a breath and step away to regroup if the best product managers have well-developed core competencies and a high eq does that mean they are destined for success no matter where they work not necessarily in fact taking these skills and personality traits and applying them to the right company is what will ultimately guarantee success companies differ in what they want from a product manager some companies over emphasize technical skills for example google requires all product managers to pass a technical skills test if the company is building a customer relationship management software there may be more requirements around experience with go to market and customer life cycles that around how the product is built by contrast if it's a data science product with machine learning algorithms and api the role may require a lot more technical depth to not only understand how to build the product but also how to talk credibly with the customers who will use it every company has a different philosophy about the product development process and where product managers fit into that process in smaller companies product managers usually drive engineering the gather requirements write the product requirements documents and hand it off to engineering to spec out the technical solutions the general expectation is that product managers know best about what customers need and engineering is there to serve on the other hand in more technically oriented companies engineering drives product the cloud ai big data blockchain and networking companies tend to be engineering driven where engineers are advancing the science in their domain and product managers validate solutions or create front end access points such as ui and api to tap into this new technology there can be a collaborative relationship and feedback loop between customers pms and engineering but typically product managers are serving engineering in these companies in some earlier stage companies it's important to know how involved the founder ceo is in the product process if they are deeply involved the pm role may play more of a support role to flesh out their ideas or validate concepts with customers versus conceiving and driving ideas of their own this can be great fun for some product managers who enjoy partnering with founders and collaborating on the product evolution but for other product managers it can be very frustrating if they prefer to take more ownership of the product direction it can also be challenging if the more technical founders prefer working directly with engineers this can leave product managers out of the loop causing not just personal frustrations but delays when considering a pm role that may work closely with the founding leadership team be sure to find out their expectations of the pm function and decide whether this is the right fit with your interests there are of course many other factors to consider for any product manager role such as the type of product you are building the people with the mule work the overall company culture and of course the compensation and benefits there are also lots of articles on hiring product managers to get perspective on what the hiring managers are looking for however if you are striving to be a great product manager consider all of the above before signing on to your next gig developing core competencies will be an ongoing activity throughout your career and leveraging eq will ensure a more positive experience but where you work how they work and who you work within for will ultimately determine your long-term success if you found this video useful i would appreciate it if you smash the like button also make sure to subscribe to the coding tech channel and click on the notification bell enjoy the rest of your day