Essential PM Skills: What Matters and Why

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The role of a Product Manager (PM) is hugely variable. What you need to achieve day to day depends on many things: the company, the scope of the team, the maturity of a product, your level of experience, and many other factors. That said, there are some skills that all PMs require. I’m going to cover each of these skills in a short series of posts.

To make good decisions, PMs must be able to exercise critical thinking, and that’s the topic for the first article — “What matters most right now?”. Our teams look to us to highlight the key issues and bring them into sharp focus. Some people suggest that ruthless prioritization is the most important PM skill, and it certainly matters. Still, I’d argue that without critical thinking, you’ll be unable to identify and choose the right trade-offs. This also applies to evaluating your ideas — being able to consider them dispassionately will help you make better decisions.

Empathy might perhaps be considered a trait rather than a skill, but it’s something PMs require. They work with many other disciplines — engineering, design, marketing, legal, partnerships, sales, operations, customers, support, customer success, finance… there’s potential for a PM to need to collaborate with almost every part of an organization. This goes deeper than having what we call cross-functional skills.

When I was at Google we used to say, “Computers are easy, people are hard”, in recognition of the fact that technical problems are often easier to solve than people or organizational ones. We don’t work with job functions; we work with people. People have motives, concerns, fears, frustrations, and habits. To pretend otherwise is to suggest that your colleagues are simple robots, and if that’s the case, I suggest you consider finding a new role somewhere else. Teams have collective memories and sometimes entrenched opinions. Without empathy, it is hard to understand others’ choices.

Communication skills are important. Whether you are pitching a new feature to a skeptical team or explaining how your roadmap ladders up to the company’s strategic goals, the ability to get your point across is vital for success. Many times I’ve heard someone say of a successful PM, “Oh, but they’re just naturally good at communicating”. The reality is they’re probably not naturally good at it, but they have chosen to prioritize getting better at it. Whether it’s writing, presenting, or contributing in meetings, you can improve by thinking carefully about your approach.

Most PM communication is about giving people useful information that they don’t already have. There are times when you repeat yourself, of course, but even then, the implicit message is “What I said before still applies now”. Listening is also important because PMs are typically (but not always) surrounded by experts, people who have much more in-depth knowledge of something than we do; their perspectives are hugely valuable.

Besides these three foundational facilities, there are a lot of other abilities that can make you a stronger PM. What is significant about critical thinking, empathy and communication skills is that improving them will drive improvements in almost every other facet of your role. They are the base of the pyramid.

Which of these skills matters most as a PM? Richie Benaud, a very shrewd and successful captain of the Australian national cricket team, said, “Captaincy is 90% luck and 10% skill. But don’t try it without that 10%”. While there’s a lot more than luck to PMing, I believe that critical thinking is the one thing you absolutely must-have in your kit bag. The good news is that you can get better at it, and once you start to exercise the muscle many other aspects of your PM game will get better too. You’ll develop stronger relationships with other functions and teams because you’ll be more able to understand their perspectives. You’ll communicate more effectively because you’ll be able to deliver the right message, via the right channel, to the right audience, at the right time.

Did you like this post? Read the next installment of Robert’s guest post series on the importance of critical thinking.

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