Book Review: Product Leadership — How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams
Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson & Nate Walkingshaw.
Product Managers are natural leaders that have so many great leadership qualities. According to Product Leadership, here are some key characteristics every good PM should have:
Plays well with others
Seeks challenges
Gets their hands dirty
Always acts and thinks “team first”
Is comfortable wearing lots of hats
Displays curiosity
Communicates well
Possesses selling skills
Has exceptional time management skills
Is a visionary
Shows equanimity/grace under fire
As much as every PM should have all these qualities, I have selected my top three and why I think they are very important.
Seeks challenges:
I like this because technology and innovation is never ending. No matter how great a product is, there’s always room for improvement or a different way to go about solving a problem. An example of this is Apple. The yearly Apple event is something that millions of people tune in to watch, just to see how the company is innovating and thinking out of the box to keep users happy and engaged. Regardless of how awesome the new iPhone or the latest Mac is, in the coming year, there will be a new release that will be even faster, smarter and easier to use.
We can see this constant improvement in all other industries, like manufacturing, finance, healthcare, fashion, entertainment, etc. There is always a problem to be solved, and most times, people may not know what they need until it is created. A quick example of this is Air bnb. A lot of people book hotels when travelling to a different city/country but now there’s an option to have a house/apartment for yourself or family when staying for a short period. Although this may be difficult; constantly seeking out new problems, there are endless possibilities and that makes it exciting.
Is comfortable wearing a lot of hats:
One thing about me is that I love to learn, and these days, with the help of the internet, learning new skills have become easier and more accessible. When I’m working with people from other teams, I’m always curious to learn what their role entails. This is not necessarily because I want to do what they do, but to understand their perspective better and communicate efficiently with them. For example, when working with a developer, one may not necessarily learn to code, but can learn the basics of coding to get a better sense of what they do, and improve your work relationship with them.
The same goes with other product teams. Learning the basics of design and how to identify good design will help in creating mockups and sketches that assist in communicating an idea effectively to the product designer. Or, writing a catchy product description that gives the marketing team a good idea on how to properly announce the product or feature. As a product manager, I would love to comfortably step into these roles that lead to the product’s success.
Is a visionary:
I believe this is my favourite one because it somehow ties a lot of the characteristics into one. The ability to create a product vision and clearly specify several steps involved in achieving it is a great skill to possess. It involves clearly communicating the vision to everyone involved and selling them on the idea so that it becomes their vision too. This gets people excited as they begin to brainstorm on different ways to solve the problem and eventually achieve the product vision.
Many of the successful products that can be seen today started out as a vision or an idea, and more often than not, it becomes something far greater than they once imagined. Mark Zuckerberg wanted to create a social platform where he can communicate in a fun way with his college friends. Today, Facebook has over a billion users worldwide, where people can communicate with anyone in all parts of the globe. I like that it is the Product Manager’s job to create this path and take the rest of the team/stakeholders on the journey.
For a personal scenario, I would be highlighting when I displayed the characteristic — Is comfortable wearing lots of hats.
I was fresh out of college and I got my first job as a Business Analyst in a startup, Medical Tech company. The company was still in its early stages, so there were a limited number of staff. As a BA, I was involved in documenting the business processes for all the departments; I conducted in-depth market research (both qualitative and quantitative) for the product we were going to launch, and I created strategy documents on how to achieve the short-term business goals.
For the business to take off within the time frame that was set, I had to take on a few more hats. I created investor presentations which involved financial forecasts, potential business partners and target customers. I was also involved in the hiring process, assisting the HR manager to call candidates and set up interviews, and I joined the sales team on client pitches and created the pitch deck. Taking on these tasks and more was not easy but it led to achieving the set business goals of the company.
