Succeeding as a PM

The following is a list we compiled of the skills you need in order to succeed in product management:

Ability to Empathize

Product managers must be able to understand customers and the problems that they are facing to create an effective and desirable solution. At the same time, product managers need to understand the capabilities of their team, especially because it is a cross-functional role. You need to understand how to interact with different colleagues and keep them motivated.

“PM is for people who can identify the problems in the first place by advocating for users and noticing a need that has yet to be fulfilled.”

- PM at Microsoft, Harvard Class of 2021​

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Product managers are constantly balancing their engineering team, customers, and the greater company’s goals. Thus, you need to be able to inspire people across teams and motivate them to work together towards a clear vision.

“Being a PM involves skills in engineering, business, data analysis, design, teamwork, and leadership. A common misconception is that PMs must be outstanding in all of these fields, which can definitely seem overwhelming at first. Instead, people who are a good fit for the PM role are able to learn quickly and work with everyone within these roles in order to synthesize their ideas and guide everyone's skills toward a successful product.”

- PM at Microsoft, Harvard Class of 2021

Organizational Skills

Product managers are in charge of many moving parts. You need to be able to take a complex problem and break it down into smaller steps that can be done in an executable time frame.

Creativity

Product managers should be able to think outside of the box in order to come up with new solutions -- creativity drives innovation. A product is also never done being developed--things are constantly changing, and so products must evolve too. Product managers must constantly be thinking ahead about what’s next.