5 Core Skills A Product Manager Should Have

Product manager is a trendy position for today's tech/internet industry. As a PM at Microsoft, I always got question like what exactly is product manager? What do you usually do? How can I can get a job as a product manager. In this article, I would explain the 5 core skills I think every product manager should master.

1. Communication

Communication is the top of my list because product manager is a team work role. You work with designers, developers, marketers, researchers, lawyers...etc. You just can't imagine how many people you should work with to really launch a product. As a result, communication is very important because you should be able to clarify what resources you need, why your product matter and what to expect.

2. Empathy

Product manager solves problem for the users. As someone defends for user, you should try to put yourself in their shoes. "Okay if I am someone who wish to read some articles on steemit, well there are many tags on the sidebars, and what's the difference between 'trending' and 'hot' on the main menu?..." Forgetting about your own identity and trying to understand others help you to better understand the users as well as the product itself.

3. Logic

When analyzing user problem or competitor's product, the most frequently question I ask myself if "Why". Why people willing to contribute their time to create content on social media platform on steemit? Why this site has this feature, what user need does it solve? By answering the first layer of "why", there could be much more behind that. By really figuring out the whole logic chain would power you to better catch user pain point, which they may not even be aware of themselves, and design the product that really solve the core problem.

4. Interdisciplinary knowledge

As I have mentioned, product manager works with cross functional team. Knowing some level of everything really helps. With the knowledge of how to actually design/develop/market a product provides you with a holistic perspective, where you can see how your product idea could be executed. Also, interdisciplinary experience help you better communicate with professionals with different background. People feel appreciated for you understanding their area and being respected. You don't have to be expert in every areas, but you should at least know well enough.

5. Creativity

Product management is a creative work. There are millions ways to solve a single problem and how you solve it really matters. Don't just stick to competitor's strategy but do really come up with new and adventurous way. People love new thing and there are always ways to do something. Thinking outside of box empowers product manager to extend his career life cycle.