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Non Product Management skills for Product Managers

If you ask most product people what skills they need to be successful, they’ll most likely list the usual suspects like prioritization, road-mapping, and working with the product team. But there are several skills that you wouldn’t immediately associate with product management that are equally important to your success as a product manager. Let’s take a look at a few of those “non-pm skills” that can help you succeed as a product manager.

5 Essential Business Skills for Product Managers. Product managers are expected to possess a combination of business skills, technical knowledge and UX / design expertise. It’s a hefty list of qualities as you can rarely excel in all 3. Richard Holmes takes a look at some of the most essential business skills for product managers.
(via @Deptofproduct)

Product manager skills — empathy. Empathy is the awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people. It is a key element of emotional intelligence, the link between yourself and others, because it is how you understand what others are experiencing as if you were feeling it yourself. In this post, Robert Drury takes a look at empathy, one of the core non product management skills that you need to develop.
(via @rjd203)

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Data-Backed Product Validation Process

Empathy

Yesterday was “Pie Your Teacher in the Face Day” at my kids’ school for students who earned the privilege by logging a certain number of hours of “after school study time.” My 9-year old son was proudly one of the few who earned that privilege and asked me to come to watch him reap his reward.

All of the kids watching on looked so giddy – waiting for their teacher, who was now seated, to get pied right in the cheerful, smiling face. Soon, it was my son’s turn. His eyes lit up in his approach… then, SMACK!!!

He pied her. Hard. REALLY hard. 

I let out a gasp, and said, “Buddy!”... but there was nothing I could do. He not only pied his teacher in the face but did it with the follow-through of a heavyweight boxer in a prizefight. 

The teacher was fine and just laughed it off. I asked my son if he needed to do what he did so hard, and his response? “Dad, that’s just how you pie somebody in the face.” Fair enough.

It made me realize two things:

1. Context is so important. The point of a fun activity like that isn’t to go as hard as you can. It’s just fun to see your teacher get a face full of pie. Some ground rules probably needed to be set for kids to understand this.
2. We all need to have empathy. My son didn’t mean anything malicious by his overzealous execution. But he also could have put himself in her shoes. At 9 years old, it’s probably the perfect time for him to learn this.

I’m reflecting on this all here – because as product people, context and empathy are such critical skills for us all to have. This next week, think about who needs that extra context… and try an extra dose of empathy for the people you work with and customers you serve.

And in the meantime… think twice before you offer yourself up to get pied in the face by a 9-year old!

Latest Slack Activity

4 Lesser-known skills of successful product managers. The role of a product manager requires being engaged and focused, being in tune with the needs and feelings of team members and customers, and harnessing relationships for the betterment of the product roadmap and company. David Fradin covers a handful of skills for product managers that you may not have considered when considering a role in product management.
 (via @DavidFradin1)

How to Analyze Data: A Basic Guide.  As a product manager, the ability to identify and explore trends and fluctuations in your data is an essential skill for decision-making. Fortunately, data analysis is a skill you can learn. You don’t need to be a “numbers person,” have an advanced degree in statistics, or sit through hours of in-depth training modules to understand how to analyze data. Instead, Team Geckoboard put together this guide to help you master some basic data analysis skills – from cleaning data, choosing the right analysis tools, and analyzing patterns and trends to be able to draw accurate conclusions and actionable insights.
(via @geckoboard)

The power of writing in product management.  Becoming a master communicator can be the difference between a good PM and a great PM, but it can also be the difference between a product manager and a product leader. While most PMs focus on building trust with their verbal communication, there is an x-factor in the power of written communication. If done effectively, writing can provide structure, depth, and clarity to product management. Zakir Tyebjee walks you through why writing is important, when to allocate time for it, what to use it for, and how to put it into practice as a product manager.
(via @ztyebjee)

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