Every company is host to a diverse range of roles.
For example, a product manager is responsible for identifying 1) what problems are worth solving and 2) what features are needed to solve that problem.
Engineers and designers are then responsible for owning how that gets done, with insight and prioritization from the product manager throughout the process.
A product manager requires a wide variety of skill sets.
In this post, I’ve attempted to simplify the core skills.
Be objective; every idea starts as a hypothesis and requires validation .
Avoid group think, sunk cost fallacy, confirmation, reputation, and authority bias.
Talk to a minimum of five customers every two weeks.
Distinguish between vanity metrics (e.g. # of downloads) and value metrics like daily active users/monthly active users, etc.
Be problem focused.
Constantly prioritize, focus, cut, idea backlog, push things 18 months out on the roadmap.
Create excitement around the product vision in a way that resonates with different audiences communication styles.
Identify the metric to measure if the product is working, this will be directly tied to what the company values and optimize for that measure.
Critic and listen to dissenters, they will help identify risks. Then communicate those negative outcomes and concerns to others.

Highly recommend the free “How To Build Your Product Career” course.
Photo by pure julia on Unsplash.