It is difficult to give a universal definition of the role and responsibilities of a product manager: each company has its own, so moving to this position can be a difficult task with unclear requirements.
Over the past year, I have interviewed more than fifty candidates for the position of junior product manager and noticed that most of them have no idea what they don't know. Job seekers have large gaps in understanding the role and responsibilities of a product manager. Despite the high interest in this position, they are usually not sure where to start and what areas to focus on.
So below are the six areas of knowledge that I think are most important for a product manager and their sources. I hope these materials will be able to dispel the fog and point the right way.
Translated to
1. Learn how startups work
Eric Ries, author of The Startup Method, defines a startup as an institution dedicated to creating a new product in the face of extreme uncertainty.
The fundamental tasks and activities of a startup founder and an early-stage product manager overlap to a large extent. Both strive to create a product that people want, for which it is necessary to 1) launch a product (feature), 2) communicate with customers - to understand whether the proposal meets their needs, 3) receive feedback from them, 4) repeat the cycle.
A product manager needs to understand how successful startups build products, find their market niche, communicate with customers, prioritize potential features, and intentionally do things that don't scale.
Resources to help you learn how startups work:
- How to manage a startup and grow your business as fast as possible: by Eric Rees.
- by Sam Altman.
- Lecture on how to communicate with users: Emmett Shear.
- Why regular non-scalable actions are the secret sauce of a successful startup: Paul Graham.
- The basics of methods for assessing user behavior in a product: , Dave McClure.
A photo - , area
2. Understand why flexibility matters
Product managers typically face challenges without ready-made solutions—and in an uncertain and ever-changing environment. In such circumstances, draw up strict - an idea doomed to failure.
The planning and management of the software development process should be appropriate for such an environment - you need to act quickly and easily adapt to changes, launch functions continuously, in small parts. The advantages of this approach:
- Bad decisions can be spotted sooner and turned into rewarding experiences.
- Achievements motivate people early on and point them in the right direction.
It is important for product managers to understand why flexibility in planning and operation is of great importance.
Resources to help you learn agile software development:
- и .
- about Spotify's tech culture, which has inspired many teams around the world (and helped to overtake Apple Music).
- about Agile Software Development. Remember that there are no set rules for “agility”—every company applies this principle in its own way (and in different ways, even within different teams in the same company).
3. Increase your technical literacy
"Is it necessary to get a computer specialty?"
"Do I need to know how to program?"
Above are the two main questions I get asked by those who want to get into product management.
The answer to these questions is "no": product managers do not need to be able to program or have a computer specialty (at least in the case of 95% of the jobs in the market).
At the same time, the product manager must develop his own technical literacy - in order to:
- Understand the technical limitations and complexity of potential features in general terms without contacting the developers.
- Simplify communication with developers by understanding core technical concepts: APIs, databases, clients, servers, HTTP, product technology stack, etc.
Resources to help you improve your technical literacy:
- Course with basic concepts on basic technical concepts: , Team Treehouse (free 7-day trial available).
- Course on the building blocks of software: , Khan Academy (free).
- Stripe is known for its - after reading it, you will get an idea of how the APIs work. If some terms are not clear, just google it.
4. Learn to make data-driven decisions
Product managers do not write the actual product, however, they play an important role in what significantly affects the work of the team − make decisions.
Decisions can range from minor (increasing the height of the text field) to major (what the characteristics of a new product prototype should be).
In my experience, the simplest and most convenient decisions have always been based on the results of data analysis (both qualitative and quantitative). The data helps you scale a task, choose from different versions of design elements, decide whether to keep or remove a new feature, monitor performance, and more.
To simplify your life and get more value from your product, it's important to consider fewer opinions (and biases) and more facts.
Resources to help you learn how to make data-driven decisions:
- A course that will give fundamental knowledge of statistics: , Udacity (free).
- Course on the basics of extracting useful information from databases and analysis on the fly: , Datacamp (free trial available).
- The Booking.com platform is one of the pioneers of A/B testing. describes their approach to testing.
- Airbnb experiments article:
- Introduction to machine learning: , Adam Geitgey.
5. Learn to spot good design
Product managers and designers work together to provide the best possible user experience.
A product manager doesn't need to be designing, but he does need to be able to distinguish good design from mediocre design and thus provide useful feedback. It's important to be able to go beyond suggestions like "make the logo bigger" and step in when things start to get complicated and the design becomes redundant.
Resources to help you understand what good design is:
- A book about what makes a product convenient and intuitive: Steve Krug.
- Check out the guides (from Apple, for iOS) and (by Google, for Android) and try to find the design patterns described there in your applications.
- Lesson , Harry Tan.
6. Read tech news
Songs, pictures, philosophical concepts... new is always a combination of existing ideas. Steve Jobs didn't invent the personal computer), nor did Sony invent the first digital camera (). Eminent companies have reworked the existing ones, borrowed, used and adapted ideas already voiced - and this is a natural process of creating a new one.
To create means to connect many parts together. If you ask a creative person how he did something, he will feel a little guilty, because in his understanding he did nothing, but just saw the picture.
- Steve Jobs
Product managers need to keep abreast of innovations, learn about fast-growing startups and failures, be the first to use cutting-edge technologies, and listen to new trends. Without this, it will not be possible to maintain creative power and an innovative approach.
Resources for occasional reading, listening and viewing:
- New products and Internet trends for every day: и
- Daily technical news: , и .
- Sign up for : Author Jason Calacanis periodically invites entrepreneurs to share their experiences.
- Tech leaders and influencers on Twitter: , , , , ,
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Source: habr.com