1. Analytics
Being good with numbers is an understatement as a requirement for Product Managers. Understanding product metrics (and how it is broken down) and levers to drive results are fundamental to being a proficient Product Manager. Ability to use data analysis platforms such as Google Analytics and Looker to analyse data is important to report progress or conclude the results of experiments. Speaking of experiments, I will probably write a whole article about running experiments later in the year.
Tip: I picked up quite a lot via Google Analytics Academy. And they are free. https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/. But nothing beats doing it on the ground, analysing hard real data. Practical trumps Theory.
2. Communication and Documentation
Stakeholders management and alignment is an everyday thing for Product Managers. Rather than under-communicating and leaving people out (accidentally or intentionally), over-communicating is a good habit to have stakeholders informed regularly of ongoing initiatives and projects. Frequent communication has countless of benefits. Just to name a few. Firstly, it helps to build rapport and trust with teammates, being able to move towards the same goal together. Secondly, it helps to identify any red flags early. Stakeholders might not agree or understand the intent of the initiative, so involving them early will be helpful to identify misalignment risks before the scope of the initiative firms up.
Why communication and documentation are the same point is because they are complementary. A good PM will clearly document the product objectives and requirements and use that as a tool to communicate with stakeholders on why the product or initiative is worth chasing for. Also, the document can be the source of truth. There is no point documenting but not using that to communicate across. On the other side, it is inefficient communicating over a black piece of paper. In short, documentation work hand in hand with communication very well.
3. Grit and Growth Mindset
Product management is not easy. Product Management requires passion and perseverance. Passion to create value for the users of the products. Passion to grow the company via the initiatives. Perseverance to keep going to hit milestones to reach the long term goal. Perseverance to go through the ups and downs to end up with a win. Product Management requires Grit.
With Grit, comes Growth mindset. Product Managers don’t know many things (nobody knows everything right) but need to know or learn many new things along the way. Having a growth mindset is critical to a truly successful product manager.
https://www.strengthscope.com/how-to-develop-a-growth-mindset/
Leaving a TED video about Grit by Angela Lee Duckworth, because I can’t explain Grit better than her, obviously.
