PRODUCT

MANAGER-
ESSENTIAL
ROLES AND
SKILLS

PRESENTED BY -
Agrah Mehta
Sanya Chhabda
Who is a PRODUCT
MANAGER?
A product manager is the person
responsible for defining the why,
what, and when of the product that
the engineering team will build. They
are the CEO of their product -- which
means they lead cross-functional
teams from a product's conception
through to its launch.The product
manager is often considered the
CEO of the product and is
responsible for the strategy,
roadmap, and feature definition for
that product or product line.
 What does a PRODUCT MANAGER
do?
A product manager communicates product
vision from the highest levels of executive
leadership to development and
implementation teams. The product manager
investigates, selects, and drives the
development of products for an organization,
performing the activities of product
management.
A product manager considers numerous
factors such as intended demographic, the
products offered by the competition, and how
well the product fits with the company's
business model. Generally, a product
manager manages one or more tangible
products. However, the term may be used to
describe a person who manages intangible
products, such as music, information, and
services.
What does it take to be a PRODUCT
MANAGER?
(essential roles and skills)
Responsibilities of a Product
Manager
Observer
Prophet
Strategist
Accountant
Aligner
Driver
Fighter
Fixer
Observer
The product manager sees customers, markets, and teams for what they are. The best ones can spot
opportunities where others may see nothing more than a wasteland. This requires a keen ability to observe
without judgment and listen deeply without speaking no easy thing. Product managers do this so they can
use their observations to assemble a holistic picture of where the product is currently, what customers think of it,
and where it needs to go in the future.

Prophet
The product manager sets the vision for where the product is headed based on seeing the truth through deep
observation, as described above. Meaningful products that solve real customer problems require profound
insight and unabashed confidence to see, then build. And while customers often know that they have pain, it is
rare to find a customer that knows exactly how to solve it. The prophetic product manager knows how the team
should enhance the product next, even though everyone is uncertain as to what to do next.

Strategist
The product manager sets the products goals and key initiatives to realize the higher-level vision. They start
with a strategy that is market and customer driven and thoughtfully consider the capability and potential of the
organization. Then they establish what they want to achieve and how they will get there so the product team can
work on what matters. The strategic product manager tracks the goals and makes changes to the plan
accordingly.

Accountant
The product manager has a responsibility to own the performance of their product and that strategy. Sure, the
product manager carefully sets quantifiable goals and establishes clear metrics to determine success. But it is
not enough just to set goals and initiatives. Strategic product managers know that they cannot improve what
they do not measure. So they keep a dashboard of performance metrics that matter to the health of the product
and the business. Product managers live by those metrics and take account on an ongoing basis.
Aligner
The most respected product managers work at two levels simultaneously driving strategic alignment within the product
and product team, while making sure everyone is in sync. They also commit to making sure the strategy is deeply linked to
the day-to-day work. This high-level and task-oriented work must be aligned by the product manager. At the most
tactical level, product managers ensure feature prioritization is aligned to the strategy, build detailed cross-functional
plans, and lead (maybe even cajole) the team to deliver results.

Driver
The product manager drives action. No one pushes the team harder to get meaningful work done. They know the
importance of urgency across the team and respond to requests for information and problems quickly because they cannot
afford to have the team slow down. Time is not something a product manager can get more of, so every day they work to
ensure the product is more loved by customers than it was the day before. The work of a driven product manager is never
done, and that is why they are eager to make an impact every day.

Fighter
The product manager fights to make the truth about customers and the product known and refuses to get distracted from
their strategy. They are the first to get excited (really, really excited) when a new idea shows the potential to truly impro ve
the product for customers. But they are also the first to say no when the shiny new idea is not aligned with the goals and
initiatives. They will fight for the customer and for the team because they know the two are inexorably intertwined.

Fixer
The product manager fixes everything. They tune the product strategy based on meaningful analysis of what is happening.
They are also the first person called upon to solve complex problems the on-boarding experience is not driving the
expected customer engagement, sales has misrepresented when a new feature will be delivered, or a partner is
demanding changes to the API. Knowing which problems to pay attention to matters because it determines when to fix an
issue, when to leave it alone, or when to allow the organization to self-correct. The best product managers know when
they need to dig in and when not to meddle. And the fixer product manager relies on all the other skillsets (observer,
prophet, strategist, accountant, aligner, driver, fighter, and evangelist) to prioritize when to do what.
Some roles that Product Managers perform on a daily
basis.
 Monitoring development projects

Writing product requirements

Writing detailed specifications

Creating sales presentations and demos

Preparing business case

Researching market needs

Going on sales calls

Creating material for internal audiences (intranet/wiki)

Planning and managing marketing programs

Training sales people

Creating material for external audiences (blog/newsletter)

Visiting sites (without sales people)

Writing copy for promotional material

Working with press or analysts

Measuring marketing programs

Performing win/loss analysis

Approving promotional material

Technical product management skills
Problem Solving

Understanding of Technology

Consumer Understanding

Eye for Design

Business Perspective

Analytical Skills
1. Problem Solving
The first most important hard skill that you need is a problem-solving attitude. Its difficult to teach, but easy to
practice. When you are faced with a problem, you should try and find a unique, interesting and feasible solution
to it, instead of saying, this is too difficult, I dont know how to figure this out. A problem-solving attitude is
the first thing that you need to become a good product manager.

2. Understanding of Technology
Once you have developed a solid problem-solving attitude, the next thing that you need is a strong passion and
understanding of technology. Now, I dont mean that you need to be a kickass coder or you need to be a gadget
geek, but you really need to appreciate and understand how different products on the web or various apps work,
how they communicate with each other and how technology can be used to solve problems for your users
because thats your core job. Also, if you dont want to get laughed at by your engineers, misunderstood or
worse, not taken seriously, you need to figure it out.

3. Consumer Understanding
The next thing that you need to have is a deep understanding of your users. You are not building the product for
yourself or your friend or a family member - who may love it, but there is a good chance that if you dont really
invest in understanding your actual users, no one is going to use your product. And for a lot of products, the users
are not going to be those you are directly related to or people you immediately understand and whose
backgrounds/environment you are familiar with. If you are working at say, Zomato or Instagram, you and your
friends may use the product, but if you are working on something thats not as popular or commonly used - like a
B2B app for enterprises - you may not relate to it. However, you still need to invest in understanding your user
and build something they love, if you want your product to succeed in the market.
4. Eye for Design
As a Product Manager, it is very important to understand what a good user experience entails. What constitutes
a good way to solve a problem versus a bad way for the user to solve a problem, navigate, understand or derive
value from your product? You need to make this distinction clearly. You should be able to look at a product
and say, "this is easy," or "this is the way I want to solve a problem," versus going ahead with a type of user
experience that really does not delight or connect with the user. Just having that design insight and being able
to connect to the experience of your users is a very, very important skill for a Product Manager.

5. Business Perspective
The fifth hard skill that you must sharpen, is a strong business sense. You may build a product that your users
love and use a lot, but if its not making any money and its not adding to the companys P&L, it will most
likely have to be shut down, sooner or later. So, remember to keep in mind your companys business model
objectives along with projections of the product you are building (in terms of what value it was intended to
bring to the company) and whether your product is furthering that business model.

6. Analytical Skills
The final hard skill that you need in your 'Product Management Armor' is the skill of being analytical and data
driven. Most products today are being used by millions of people and are generating a huge amount of data.
You need to be able to look at all that data, understand why your users are using your product, or whether they
are just coming on to your product platform and then leaving without using it - you need to get that insight and
figure out what is the next thing that your users are looking forward to in your product, and figure out how to
build it.
Non-Technical Product Management Skills
Business Acumen

Negotiation

Persuasion

Evangelism

Customer advocacy

Competitive intelligence
1. BUSINESS ACUMEN
It is a product development managers most basic responsibility (and primary goal) to maximize a companys value by
way of marketable and profitable products. An active understanding of business in order to achieve this goal is highly
essential. A successful manager will have a [healthy] obsession with optimizing products lines to ensure that the
business value of your company soars. This means thinking like an executive and making decisions based on
achieving criteria the company has established as critical, not just acting in the best interest of your particular
products short-term success.

2. NEGOTIATION
Negotiations are just conversations. Every time you talk to Sales about why they cant have a feature, you are
negotiating. When you show the roadmap to your Executive team and explain why some features are not going into
the release, you are negotiating. The trick is to let go of the idea that one person wins and the other one loses. Its not
a zero-sum game. The best negotiations aim for a win-win outcome. Very few people are born expert negotiators.
Like anything else, negotiation is a learned skill.

3. PERSUASION
In concert with a product managers ability to negotiate, persuading others to align with your decisions (or at least not
prevent you from acting on them) is another critical skill to develop and utilize. A good product manager develops and
maintains strong relationships with the members of the team by mutual earned respect and ability to persuade with
facts, logic, enthusiasm and a proven track record.
4. EVANGELISM
Being a product evangelist demands that you articulate the benefits and promises of your solution in a way that goes
far beyond feature lists. It requires that you embrace your customers particular challenges and demonstrate how your
product addresses their needs in a way that shows rather than sells. This means you must be as fluent in customer
needs as you are in your products capabilities. Youre not pitching youre telling a relatable story.

5. CUSTOMER ADVOCACY
Along with Customer Support and Account Management, product managers are the voice of the customer within the
organization. Youll need to be your customers champion and fight for the resources and prioritization to address
their concerns.This skill relies on using real customer data and feedback to conquer the we know whats best for our
customers mindset that can permeate an organization. If you truly believe a customer request should be honored,
youll have to articulate their/your position well and fight for it.

6. COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Regardless of how unique and novel your product may be, you have competitors. You may not be in direct
competition, but youre both angling for your potential customers attention and their wallets. Not only should you
follow what your competitors are up to so you can compete with them in sales, theres probably also a thing or two
you can learn from them, no matter how humbling it is to admit.
If you are not yet deeply knowledgeable about your target customer and market, you can learn a great deal from
doing usability testing on your competitors products.