Marty Cagan : The four critical areas of expertise a Product manager must have to be effective.
With so many opinions on what product management is on the internet, there is a skewed sense about what a product manager job's is supposed to look like. This can be especially true for those who are just starting out and don't know much about the field.
What exactly do product managers do? How are they involved in the process of developing a product? How much time do they spend with developers? With marketing teams? How do they know what to work on next if their job is to have a bird's eye view of the whole product?
These are all questions you likely have when you start thinking about becoming a PM.
I'd like to clear up the confusion and shed some light on what it means to be a product manager, with tips from one of my favorite product leaders, Marty Cagan, and I hope you'll have a good idea of a PM's role by the end of this article.
"As a product manager, you’re responsible for ensuring that what gets built is both valuable and viable. And to be clear, this is what makes the job hard. You’ll have no chance unless you do your homework and prepare."~~Marty Cagan
A product has four risks1 in of development efforts:
Feasibility, Viability, Value risk, and Usability
The PM in an empowered team2 is solely responsible for the value and viability risk. That is, a PM's job is to discover and decide two things
1. If users will want to use or buy your product
2. If the product can provide business value for the organization as much as it provides value for the customer.
But in the context of a feature team3, a product manager can assume the role of a product owner where he/she is responsible for the administrative backlog, this is much more than writing a list of user stories. A validated backlog happens in the product discovery process where you must have separated the good ideas from the bad. The problem is not all PMs are great at handling a validated backlog.
In the Product Manager's contribution4, Marty Cagan outlines the 4 critical areas a Product Manager must be skilled in.
Deep Knowledge of the Customer and Users: have a firm grasp of the customers' behaviour derived from Quantitative and Qualitative learnings, should be an expert of the customer.
Deep Knowledge of the Data; Know about the analytics and data of how the product is used and the key metrics used in driving outcomes.
Deep Knowledge of the Industry; Understand the competitive landscape, key trends in terms of technology, customer behaviours, and evolving patterns.
Deep Knowledge of the business; Understand the company's business goals, the product outcomes that can drive the business goals, the go-to-market strategy, the business model of the company, the economics of the product( how much it cost, how much it is sold, the revenue ).as well as security, legal and ethical implications.
Should a PM have a Deep Understanding of the Technology?
I think having a basic knowledge of how the technology works, the frameworks, and the structures are just about good enough.
Good PMs will have a general understanding of technology, but I don't know if it needs to be deep. A good PM understands how the technology works at a high level and can make educated guesses about what a feature might cost to implement. They aren't going to guess wrong by an order of magnitude.
That's more important than knowing the specific details of how a particular device works. It's more important than knowing whether your app is HTML5 or native, or which version of PHP you're using on the server side.
If you're working in an industry in which you have no experience, then it is important to do research and get up to speed quickly. If you're managing a team building a mobile app, it's helpful if you have used mobile apps before and know what they can and cannot do.
Bonus Tip: Life Skills Product Managers Need To Survive In The Real World
Decision-Making Skills: To improve your decision-making skills, it helps to understand what kind of decision-maker you are and what biases may affect your decisions. It also helps to practice making good decisions and getting feedback on your choices. Keep a decision journal and always find time to reflect.
Systems thinking: Cultivate a habit that visually externalizes your thinking. Writing is one way to do it.
Critical thinking: This means that you are not simply repeating what you hear or read, but instead making your own informed decisions about what you believe and why you believe it.
Team mindset: If you want to be a manager, you need to learn how to talk to other people, learn how to work together with them, and learn how to get them to do things.
Statistical competence: You need to be able to understand numbers. Learn how to quickly find important numbers and know how they are being used.
Finally,
With all that’s out there to learn, there are no excuses not to keep your skills and knowledge up to date. Pick one or two areas that interest you most and dive deep. Become an expert. Once you’ve exhausted one area, move on to another area. But remember to go back and refresh old areas often. By doing this, you will build a broad base of skills that are both deep and broad. As an added benefit, you will reduce your risk of being pigeonholed in one area or another.
REFERENCES
The Four Big Risks by Marty Cagan|Dec 4, 2017
Product vs. Feature Teams by Marty Cagan|Aug 29, 2019
Product vs. Feature Teams by Marty Cagan|Aug 29, 2019
The Product Manager Contribution by Marty Cagan|Mar 18, 2012