What Makes A Great Product Manager?

I'm currently on the hunt for a Director of Product Management and it started me thinking about the qualities that I would look for in a Product Manager. Over my career I've hired some great, and admittedly, not so great Product Managers. So, as the Product team expands and I am in the midst of this process once again, I thought it would provide an opportunity for me to jot down the most important qualities that I look for in a Product Manager.

Let's begin with the assumption that the interviewee has a background in product management, so we can forego the understanding of best practices and product management processes. What I am going to describe in this post are the important soft skills that I look for. This, I believe, is the foundation for every great Product Manager I have worked with.

Passion

This is the number 1 quality that I look for in an individual. I want to feel a fire in them for the practice of product management, for their team members, for their customers, for their products. I believe that if a Product Manager has passion, that all of the other qualities that I would hope to see are natural byproducts of this passion. If there is passion, there is drive to delight customers through wildly successful products.

I've hired Product Managers from within the organization not because they've had extensive experience in product management, but because they have passion. They are fixated on the customer and on the success of the product, and you know what? They've been some of the best Product Managers that I have ever worked with.

Humble

I mentioned earlier that in my past I've hired what turned out to be some not so great Product Managers. Perhaps some of these Product Managers lacked specific skills that I would have expected, but one thing that they all had in common, the one quality that they all lacked was humility. Had they been humble, they would have possessed the ability to accept that there was an opportunity for improvement and would have taken corrective action. But instead, in almost every case, they decided to deflect and blame, instead of owning the issue.

Lack of humility affects not only self-awareness, but also hampers the Product Manager's ability to listen to, and accept, the input and opinions of other people. In product, much of what we do is accomplished through influence because we do not directly control the resources that we require. Arrogance (the opposite of humility) won't get you far in that regard.

Finally, arrogance is toxic to a team. As a leader, it's my responsibility to eliminate any obstacles that impede my team from being effective Product Managers. This includes anything that negatively impacts the culture of the team, which an arrogant team member does. It does not matter if an interviewee knows everything there is to know about product management, that they've written a book or speak on the subject, if the interviewee is going to adversely affect the culture of the team, in this case through their arrogance, then they have no place on the team.

Customer Centric

I quite often write about the customer and how they should be at the center of everything that we as Product Managers do. I look for this laser focus on the customer in a Product Manager as well. During interviews, I dive into this topic, asking for examples of how the interviewee reaches out to customers to understand their challenges and needs, how customer input is used to prioritize the product backlog, how they understand who their customers are, how they understand how customers are using their products, etc. Customer centricity is critical, and I would have listed it as my number 1 quality but I believe that if there is passion, then the Product Manager will naturally find their way to being customer centric.

Empathy

Empathy is another quality that I love to see in a Product Manager, and human beings in general. It's important that a Product Manager not only have empathy for the customer, but also for their team members, and members of other teams as well. A Product Manager must be able to put themselves into the shoes of another person. Why does the customer need this and what pain is it causing them? Why is my team mate struggling? Why does the engineering team say that they can't get something done that I've requested? There are always multiple sides to every story, and being able to see things from different perspectives is a critical quality for a Product Manager to posses. Plus, the world needs more empathy and humanity, but I won't get on that soapbox here.

Leader/Influencer

While a Product Manager may not have direct reports, the qualities that make a good leader are also required in a great Product Manager. I am a firm believer in the whole product philosophy. That is, every interaction that a customer has with an organization positively or negatively affects his/her perception. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Product Manager to ensure that all customer touch points create an amazing customer experience. To be successful in this regard, a Product Manager must reach across multiple teams within an organization. From marketing, sales, support, onboarding, finance, operations, engineering, etc. relationships must be established so that the Product Manager can secure any required resources. As these resources are not under the direct control of the Product Manager, they must be acquired through influence. While interviewing, I like to explore how the interviewee has navigated and established these cross team relationships in the past. I especially like to hear examples of how the interviewee overcame resistance through influence and leadership.

I will cede that in general, I love "horror" stories and how they have been overcome by the interviewee. Some of you might feel that this places too much focus on the negative, but I would argue that being a fair weather Product Manager isn't a true test of what a Product Manager is made of. It's how he/she handles themselves during a difficult situation, which every organization has from time to time, that is the more accurate indicator of their true capabilities.

Curious

As Product Managers, we should be naturally curious. We should always want to understand things more deeply and from different perspectives. This helps to drive conversations with our customers, peers, and management teams. It helps us to monitor the competition to see what they are doing and to monitor the market in general. Curiosity benefits the Product Manager in defining strategies, setting the product roadmap, and in grooming the backlog. I love to ask interviewees about 0:1 products and how they got things off the ground. What was the catalyst in deciding that it was a great opportunity. Really great products solve a problem, that came from an idea, which began with curiosity. I definitely look for this in my team members.

Visionary

As I've described, it's a must to interact with customers and understand their current needs, but most customers won't be able to tell you what their future needs might be. Therefore, it's crucial that a Product Manager not only focus on solving the issues that customers have today, but also focus on ensuring that the product will meet their needs tomorrow.

Also, from a competitive perspective, the product must continue to evolve with new features that delight your customers. Otherwise, customers will continually churn out, and competitors will be eating your lunch the whole way to obsolescence. Product Manager's should have the vision to evolve a product so that as a customer's needs change or mature, that the product continues to deliver.

Being originally from Canada, I of course have a hockey maxim to describe this. "You don't skate to where the puck is, you skate to where the puck is going to be". The same is true in product, and vision is required to skate to (plan for) where the puck (customer needs) is going to be.

Technical

This last quality may or may not be important to you depending on the industry that you are in. Being in software my entire career, I've found that having a technical background has really helped bridge the gap between the business and the engineering team. Being able to speak two languages, business and technical, allows the Product Manager to drive discussions between these two groups. It also builds credibility with the engineering team when a Product Manager understands what they are speaking about and is empathetic to their challenges. (Been there, done that.) While not having this quality isn't a show stopper for me, the candidate will need to be exceptionally strong in the other qualities. But possessing a technical background is a definite plus for me.

In Summary

These are some of the main qualities that I look for in a Product Manager. There are several additional qualities such as communication, self-awareness, accountability, logic, analytic capabilities, emotional intelligence, etc., but I believe that most of these are related to the qualities that I've listed previously.

I have found that it is easier to mentor someone the discipline of product management and all of the techniques that go along with that, than it is to change the nature of the person. I am not saying it cannot be done, I'm simply saying that it is easier to teach a process than to mold an individual. Therefore, when I'm looking for a Product Manager, I'm looking for this solid foundation on top of which we can build. These qualities are what, in my opinion, create product management rock stars.

I hope that you found these thoughts beneficial and I'd love to hear any thoughts that you might have, so feel free to leave a comment.

Finally, if you know a Product Manager that is looking for a new opportunity, and you see these qualities in them, please send him/her my way. Even if you're reading this post months from now, I'd still love to connect with them.

Wishing you all the best

Mike