4 Key Responsibilities of a Product Manager
I love asking people what they think are the most important traits or jobs of a product manager. While the words they use are different and how much they aggregate or dissect a core concept differ, they all boil down to common points of view.
In a recent session, I was debating the important traits of a PM with another product leader. Their list was slightly different from mine. Since I have shared my favorite list, time, and again, today I will share a slightly different list. Both are valid.
Communication
Prioritization
Strategy
Execution
Communication.
The vast majority of what a product manager does is communicate. This takes the form of:
Speaking 1:1
Speaking 1:X (group discussions and brainstorms)
Presenting to Groups
Written Documentation (PRDs, Strategy Plans, 1 Pagers, Slide Decks, etc. )
Chats & Digital Channels
Sometimes, we are communicating plans; other times we are defusing tense situations. We have to speak to a designer one minute, an engineer the next and before the day ends we might have 1 minute with the CEO. We need to know how to tailor our messages so they are appropriate for the audience.
Prioritization.
The team and leaders look to the product manager to set the priorities. Product managers prioritize constantly, everything from which feature to focus on to instantly making a call to kill a small initiative or sub-feature. A good product manager prioritizes without even realizing that is what they are doing.
Most importantly, they make decisions with imperfect information. This means when they get new information, they may need to pivot (re-prioritize). New information can take the form of data deep dive, a new leadership pivot, qualitative discussions with users, and unearthed documents from long-departed teammates.
Strategy.
I used to hate the saying: Strategy is as much about what you don’t do as what you choose to do. But it is so true. Making a decision on what to do and in what order is strategy. What you chose not to do isn’t just what got left behind, it is a conscious decision.
Execution.
This is where we spend the early years of our career. Product managers build their brand on getting products across the finish line, often through brut force. The more senior you get, the more execution is about helping others get to the deeper details. Execution might be more about writing that strategy document or giving the feedback to a junior PM to unblock them.
In Conclusion.
All four of these concepts are closely intertwined. Product managers determine the strategy (at their level), and then make prioritization decisions so that they team can execute on the ideas. Throughout this entire process they are communicating decisions and observations so that the team can collectively make the right decisions for the end user.
Interview Application.
Next time you get a behavioral question that stumps you. Stop and think about the strengths of a PM and wrap your story around them.
Don’t just copy my lists verbatim, think about what you believe are the most important traits of a product manager, and own that point of view.
