Good start, but I’d like to add technical empathy and literacy to the list.
I’m a PM and too many of my peers don’t know a lick about how the products in their portfolio even work at a fundamental level. This lack of basic technical literacy leads to the inability to communicate and empathize with their development team. That makes requirements writing a Herculean effort of wading through abstractions, which obviously isn’t going to translate to quick delivery.
Perhaps worse is these types of PMs instinctually don’t include their developers in the ideation process, because they struggle to understand what they could even add to the discussion.
A PM must be curious, and that includes curiosity about the underlying tech. They must be in the business of demystifying and democratizing the building blocks of their products. This shouldn’t be at the expense of the business functions of the job, but it should be part of the multi-pronged nature of the job. PMs shouldn’t just be lobbing requirements over the wall with no idea what they’re asking for. And this doesn’t mean we always need to hire PMs with a technical background. One of the best things about the nebulous “product manager” profession is that it’s really just a catch all for people from all related disciplines who have a talent for working at the intersection of the user and the business. All I’m saying is at least watch a damn YouTube video about React Native, GraphQL, Drupal, or whatever the heck you use and I guarantee it will pay dividends in your requirements writing and your communication with your developers.
I’m a PM and too many of my peers don’t know a lick about how the products in their portfolio even work at a fundamental level. This lack of basic technical literacy leads to the inability to communicate and empathize with their development team. That makes requirements writing a Herculean effort of wading through abstractions, which obviously isn’t going to translate to quick delivery.
Perhaps worse is these types of PMs instinctually don’t include their developers in the ideation process, because they struggle to understand what they could even add to the discussion.
A PM must be curious, and that includes curiosity about the underlying tech. They must be in the business of demystifying and democratizing the building blocks of their products. This shouldn’t be at the expense of the business functions of the job, but it should be part of the multi-pronged nature of the job. PMs shouldn’t just be lobbing requirements over the wall with no idea what they’re asking for. And this doesn’t mean we always need to hire PMs with a technical background. One of the best things about the nebulous “product manager” profession is that it’s really just a catch all for people from all related disciplines who have a talent for working at the intersection of the user and the business. All I’m saying is at least watch a damn YouTube video about React Native, GraphQL, Drupal, or whatever the heck you use and I guarantee it will pay dividends in your requirements writing and your communication with your developers.