10 Effective Product Manager Skills in 2022
Introduction to Product Manager Skills
We live in a world that is driven by technology. As Product-as-a-Service continues to dominate the world, the role of a Product Manager has become an important one in the Information Technology domain. Professionals with effective Product Manager skills have promising growth opportunities in different sectors like IT/ITES, E-commerce, Retail, Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality, Banking & Insurance, EdTech, Consumer Goods and Finance-Tech (including Payment gateways). Payscales.com’s survey analysis shows that an entry-level Product Manager with less than a year of experience can expect INR 5-6 lakhs yearly. In contrast, the average industry salary for professionals with 2 to 4 years of experience is INR 9+ lakhs annually, and with 4+ years of experience, the annual salary can go up to INR 14 lakhs.
While the responsibilities of a Product Manager may vary with organizations, this job role consistently acts as a glue that binds multiple functions that concern a product like engineering, design, customer success, sales, marketing, operations, and finance, to name a few.
What does a Product Manager do?
What does a Product Manager job description look like?
Product Manager Job Description Sample
What does a Product Manager do?
The responsibilities of a Product Manager require a broad knowledge of product-related functions across various domains. At an elevated level, the Product Manager aids a cross-functional group through the entire strategic product lifecycle, from ideation and guidance to advancement, refinement, proceeding optimization, and development. The job also incorporates contributions to positioning, marketing, and pricing strategy.
In simple words, a Product Manager is a go-to person for any product-related decisions. A Product Manager is reliable for taking care of everyday issues and meeting short and long-term client and business objectives.
Since a Product Manager’s job involves diverse functions, a great deal of their time is spent shuffling priorities and communicating between different departments. They do not just need to gather and evaluate contributions from clients, stakeholders, business heads, and functional team leaders; they also need to decipher those concerns from team to team, so everybody communicates in a common language. Simultaneously, a PM needs to express and advocate their vision for the product.
This role might seem easy, but it requires more perseverance, hard work, and technical Product Manager skills. Let’s take a quick look at the job description for a Product Manager.
What does a Product Manager job description look like?
The aforementioned Product Manager’s job includes managing various departments and customers without a moment’s delay, but what does this role look like daily? Here’s a list of job responsibilities gathered from actual postings to give you a little flavor.
Product Manager Job Description Sample
The key responsibilities of a Product Manager are:
- Interacting with clients all the time using various channels
- Determining and organizing market and product prerequisites, feature sets, critical positioning, and marketing components
- Collaborating with developers and designers to solve consumer issues
- Devising, communicating, and managing a long-term product roadmap
- Assessing product market data to identify gaps and opportunities
- Identifying Key Performance Indicators
- Setting focus on what pushes the group towards progress
- Carrying relevant market research studies
This Product Manager skills list gives you a glimpse of the most common skills required for product-based companies in order to develop excellent products.
So, what are the skills required for the Product Manager role? In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 10 must-have product management skills.
- Interpersonal Skills
- Core Competencies
- Leadership & Team Management
- Time Management
- Budget Management
- Problem Solving
- Technical Writing
- Research Skills
- Conflict Management
- Risk Management
Product Manager skills refer to the abilities necessary to bring a product from start to finish. For example, a Product Manager ought to be organized, knowledgeable, and multitask. They must also possess excellent interpersonal skills, strong leadership skills, and effective problem-solving skills.
Let’s explore each of these skills in detail.
1. Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills include self-confidence, soft skills, and collaboration skills. The capability to collaborate well empowers the team to work collectively and complete their tasks more efficiently. The right level of self-confidence can also improve the team’s confidence as a whole, increasing morale and enhancing performance.
2. Core Competencies
The core competencies can either be learned in a classroom or developed with experience. Administering customer interviews and user testing, running design sprints, planning roadmaps, allocating resources, conducting market assessments, interpreting business-to-technical specifications and vice versa, pricing modeling, and understanding product and consumer lifecycle, to name a few.
3. Leadership & Team Management
Strong leadership skills are critical for Product Managers. They allow team leaders to oversee and coordinate tasks, encourage the team, and define the product roadmap. A Product Manager must be able to bring the team together and move them in one direction, aligning their personal goals with those of the business. Team Management skills include delegating responsibilities efficiently, evaluating performances, and mentoring team members to improve their skill sets.
4. Time Management
Every product is subject to deadlines, which means numerous tasks need to be accomplished in a short duration of time. Product Managers must be able to create a timeline and maintain those deadlines throughout the product life cycle.
5. Budget Management
One of the most critical Product Manager skills is creating a feasible budget and controlling it throughout the product life cycle. Product Managers usually need experience to effectively identify where costs overrun and what changes they need to make to control the costs. They need the ability to track expenses, put together spreadsheets, and decide where to spend.
6. Problem Solving
A Product Manager must be capable of gathering insights, evaluate the associated pros and cons, and then formulate the best solution. Strong problem-solving skills allow Product Managers to have a logical approach to solving problems in order to achieve an efficient result.
7. Technical Writing
Technical writing is a form of writing that Product Managers use to draft potential deliverables, product notes for marketing, target product releases, or send news updates.
8. Research Skills
Research skills enable a Product Manager to fill any gaps in knowledge that may help them complete the product life cycle more successfully.
9. Conflict Management
Strong conflict management skills are essential for Product Managers to keep their teams performing efficiently and working well together. Conflict management and resolution skills are also crucial because they enable fixing delayed workflows and product disparities, or addressing other internal or external hindrances.
10. Risk Management
Risks are inevitable during any product life cycle, which is why a Product Manager must possess the ability to identify what could go wrong and implement a risk mitigation strategy. They must be capable of asking questions and continuously reinforce deadlines, decisions, and mandates. They should also have proficient knowledge about utilizing professional risk management tools so that they can analyze potential risks and devise risk mitigation strategies.
Conclusion
These are the top 10 Product Manager skills you need to master to become a successful Product Manager. To enhance your Product Management skills and accelerate your career in Product Management, check our 6-month online live instructor-led Product Management Course, in collaboration with IIM Indore.
