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7 Habits of Highly Effective Product Managers

Being a successful product manager comes down to the results from your actions. Forming specific habits can make those results come easier. Here are 7 habits to make you a better PM.

1. Highly Effective Product Managers Prioritize their Roadmaps According to Value (Not Features)

The goal of a PM is to solve problems for their users. Many PM’s focus on the product they are looking to build rather than the problems they are trying to solve. Feature lists get too long and releases are missed. The way to solve this is to organize their product roadmap around major strategic themes for the product.

2. Highly Effective Product Managers Focus on Outcomes, not Outputs

PM’s should take their time working with user personas, figuring out their issues, and creating solutions. Instead of focusing on a finished product (the output), effective PM’s concentrate on finding a profitable market (the outcome). Having a customer-centric view helps guide PM’s to the outcome rather than the output.

3. Effective PMs Hone Their Leadership Skills

A PM is in a difficult position where they need to make sure work happens that they might not have the authority over a team to deliver it. Having strong leadership skills isn’t tied with being a PM. 

4. They Learn to Communicate with Everyone

A draw of being a PM is the ability to work across multiple teams and functions. Different people have different communication styles and are more receptive to some compared to others. Whether it’s the medium or words spoken, effective PM’s are thoughtful on the best way to communicate across their different stakeholders.

5. They’re Always Doing Product Discovery

Many people look at product discovery as the starting point of planning a new initiative. Once it’s complete, then the team starts to focus on delivery, but rarely looks back at discovery. Product discovery is always evolving and PM’s should continue to ask the following questions during the development process:

• Are we meeting stakeholder needs?

• Can customers use our product the way they want to?

• Do customers want what we’re developing?

Product discovery is never finished. It should be present in every stage of product development and lifecycle.

6. Highly Effective Product Managers Step Away from their Desks to Find the Big Idea (but Come Back for the Little Ones)

Many hours are spent on the fine details such as market research, user data, development schedules, bugs, etc. It’s easy for a PM to get lost in the minutiae. Sometimes physically stepping away from the work environment can help a PM be reminded of their overarching goal. 

7. Highly Effective Product Managers are Always Learning

Here are some ways to figure out where a PM should focus their learning: 

1. Figure out where you’re struggling now.

2. Determine where you or your company is going next.

3. Focus on something you’re curious about or something you think would be fun to learn next.

4. Find a weakness and work on turning it into a strength (or at least something you’re no longer afraid to try).

You can find a link to the full article here.

End Note

Thank you for reading!

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Have a great day,

Nick