Product Management 101: Traits and Responsibility
Being a product manager is not a cup of coffee that anyone can make. It calls for many inherent and developed qualities. There are so many of those that just when you think that you have mastered them all, you realize you haven’t used one or two in a while and would require some practice. In today’s article, we will talk about the top eight qualities of a product manager.
Business Acumen: We know that it’s the job of the product manager to get the right product out in the market, keeping the customer’s need in mind. But it is also essential to make sure that the company doesn’t lose on anything and keep making money to survive. This core business sense is what it takes to make profitable products.
Industry Knowledge and Expertise: Familiarity with what your company is into is an essential factor for being a product manager, which comes with lots of experience. It’s not only the knowledge that will take you ahead but also how expert you are in implementing that knowledge that will help you to sustain your job. Keeping yourself abreast with the transformations in the industry is also critical.
Technical Knowledge: You should be the one who knows the core technology that supports their product. Your goal is to understand the technical terms and translate them into the value the technology brings to your customer.
People Skill: As you would be working with different departments, the skill mentioned above becomes too important to ignore. For that, you should be a good listener. You should keep asking open-ended questions, and communicate inquiries and delegate clearly and concisely.
Decision-Making Skill: Product managers have a significant impact on their businesses because they are the ones whose roles require them to make forward-looking decisions regularly.
Problem Solving Aptitude: Obstacles put in your way are just opportunities regardless of the chances of being successful or unsuccessful. Remember that obstacles are limits. Permit yourself to expand your control area beyond the apparent limits.
A Cool Head: Many roadblocks can occur when preparing a product for launch. Dealing with the problems is a measure of your character. Be like a duck, which seems all calm from the outside but always paddling like crazy under the water.
Leadership Skill: A product manager must have leadership skills. When you ask others to go beyond their level of comfort, you need them to trust you.
Understanding Responsibility
As the company grow, the complexity of who is responsible for what also increases. Product managers generally have a long list of responsibilities that needs to be assigned so that everyone knows what they are going to be involved in. The nature of the work could be either completing a task or decision making. Depending on the work, we have two models that can be used to divide the duties. These are -
RACI: Who is responsible for completing specific tasks?
DACI: Who decides how to proceed with a particular task or function?
Going the RACI way -
Responsible: Who is responsible for participating in the completion of work?
Accountable: Who is responsible for ensuring that an action is completed?
Consulted: Who will be consulted while an action is being conducted?
Informed: Who is informed about the status of a task?
Choosing the DACI way -
Driver: Who drives a decision to completion?
Approver: Who approves a particular decision?
Contributor: Who is contributing to a decision?
Informed: Who will simply be informed of the final decision?
In the end, it’s all your decision whether you want to go for RACI or its DACI that you think fits the situation. Choose wisely before starting on any new project.
That’s it for today. Let’s meet next time. Until then, keep exploring.
