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Product Competencies at a Glance
A quick reference to the skills behind great product work.
Product Execution
The foundation of successful product management is the ability to work with a cross-functional team to define, build, and launch well-designed, stable products. Peak PMs strive to execute flawlessly. They know there is already enough risk in understanding customer needs and crafting the strategy around those needs. They can’t afford unforced errors.
The ability to define requirements, functionality, and context in a clear, actionable form that enables humans and agents to deliver the right product.
The ability to work with a cross-functional team to quickly and iteratively deliver product improvements that achieve established goals.
The ability to set the quality bar, continuously evaluate against it, and maintain technical, functional, and business quality throughout a product’s life across all relevant platforms, markets, and use cases.
Customer Insight
Product managers are cultural ambassadors for their customers. They understand customer needs and they represent those needs to the rest of the team. The very best PMs go a step further. They empathize with the people their product serves, and they care deeply about whether that product improves people’s lives.
The ability to turn data into actionable insights, use those insights to achieve product goals, and connect those goals to meaningful business outcomes.
The ability to use customer feedback in all its forms — from casual conversations to formal studies — to understand customer needs and behavior, make better product decisions, and drive meaningful business outcomes.
The ability to apply usability principles, design patterns, and interaction models — independently and with design partners — to make it easy for people and agents to access a product’s full value.
Product Strategy
In his book, Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters, author Richard Rumelt draws an important distinction between goal setting and strategy, “Unlike a stand-alone decision or a goal, a strategy is a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments, and actions that respond to a high-stakes challenge.”
Product Strategy can be similarly defined. Unlike a stand-alone feature or OKR, good product strategy requires PMs to consistently deliver features that build towards a coherent roadmap that enables a company to achieve its overall strategy. Put another way, Product Strategy is the glue that joins product development and company strategy together.
AI increases the pace of change, which makes clear strategic choices even more important. Peak PMs distinguish real customer opportunities from technology looking for a problem, decide where the team will place its bets, and give the organization a clear reason to say no to everything else.
The ability to drive meaningful business outcomes by connecting product improvements to the strategic objectives of the team and the company.
The ability to translate company and product strategy into a compelling vision, then bring that vision to life through a roadmap of highly prioritized features and initiatives.
The ability to understand and contribute to the strategy for the team and the company, and to bring that strategy to fruition through the consistent delivery of business outcomes over time.
Influencing People
Lastly, peak PMs know they are only as effective as their team. They view themselves as connective tissue within the organization. They foster strong relationships with cross-functional peers and leadership. As they take on roles of increasing scope and responsibility, they learn how to build and mentor strong PM teams. Peak PMs are able to multiply their impact by enabling the people around them to contribute to and own the business impact necessary to achieve the company’s strategy.
The ability to build relationships with the right stakeholders, understand their requirements, and create the alignment needed to deliver the best possible product.
The ability to manage and mentor direct reports with the goal of enabling them to successfully deliver in their areas of ownership, continuously improve against these competencies, deliver meaningful business outcomes, and achieve their career objectives.
The ability to leverage senior managers and executives in the organization to help achieve goals, deliver meaningful business outcomes, and positively influence the strategic direction of the team and the company.