Qualities of a Product Manager

This question comes up every time during the product management interview process….potential employee and the hiring manager both are looking for common qualities that defines the product manager.  It's not possible to cover a large spectrum of capabilities that a product manager should have in this blog.  Being said, I have highlighted a quick summary of key qualities that product manager should have :

Technology & Product Passion -  You should love technology and the products.  You live, eat, breath the products and the underlying technology. This passion is what drives you and is contagious which helps rally the team behind you.  Check out Steve Job's commencement speech on passion at the Stanford University in 2005.

Strong Work Ethic - This is a demanding job.  There are no working hours or holidays or vacations .  The job is not meant for someone who is afraid of hard work.  It's no different then running your own company ...you put everything you have for the success of the product line .

Intelligent-  This is a key  role.  A lot depends on the PM and the decisions you take.  PM must have a very strong  technical and business skill set.  There is no substitute to this.

Influence -You should have the ability to influence others. Cross functional team doesn’t report to you nor do you have any control over the team.   You must rally the team behind the common vision, roadmap and the overall product strategy and the key to this is trust and respect. You need to work hard at building these relationships over time and garner support from not just the technical team but also all the field teams and customers.

Core Values - This may sound a bit strange. But, this in my opinion is key.  Companies not only entrusts the product managers with the product but also the core values of the company and the cross functional team looks up to you . As I said earlier...passion is contagious and it is this passion that translates into garnering respect/support from the team and thus your belief in the company's core values should be reflected in your thoughts and actions.

Focus / Discipline -  Product Managers spend significant time on prioritizing things.   Focus on what you want to do , where you want to take the product, managing  your time, prioritization of the work, meetings etc is very important. Disciplined  and systematic approach is important else you end up focusing on all the things that really don’t translate into discovering and defining products that matter.

Communication - Need very strong communication skills . Both writing, speaking skills are essential for this job.

Additionally, there are other qualities that are important for the product manager to succeed.

• Self Confident

• Great Listener

• Ability to make hard and quick decisions

• Strong customer focus
• Relentless focus on improving execution

One can get into the depth of each of these qualities . My hope this quick summary will help identify the key traits and what you need to focus on.  Check out the YouTubex  videos on what product managers focus on at Google : Chris, Aseem, Charles