Is the Product Manager an exceptional profile?
Does the Product Manager profile really require exceptional people?
For readers in a hurry, the answer is: yes! This role requires exceptional people in the statistical sense (and indeed, just as often, in the human and professional sense).
Product Management requires a combination of special characteristics and talents, which are rarely found in the same person.
I'll expand on these points in the rest of the article.
As a reminder, a Product Manager has a wide and varied remit(see a summary of the Product Manager role here).
Get a bird's eye view to understand the big picture
The Product Manager translates the organization's strategic objectives down to the product level, and then into each arbitration right through to implementation decisions.
It will discover, co-construct and invent how the Product can embody the company's vision and strategic objectives.
This iterative and constantly-reviewed refinement activity ranges from the functional and technical rough-cutting of themes or epics, to the refinement of User Stories positioned in the short or medium term.
This work covers a wide spectrum of skills: analysis, in-depth understanding of needs, genuine listening skills, design and consolidation with the various players, and of course the ability to share and formalize.
For example: how do you project the timeframe for value creation? When will users (or customers) have access to this or that functionality? What will be the major releases? How are time milestones addressed? Story Maps and Roadmaps (at Portfolio and Product level) can address these questions.
The real challenge for the Product Manager is not to produce this breakdown, but to ensure that this breakdown maximizes the value delivered.
It's not a question of mastering a few techniques, but of being able to back them up with great foresight and intellectual agility. This enables you to decipher the forces at play and the market, skilfully integrating practical parameters in line with the overall picture, as visible or emerging in the background.
This subtle analysis will also guide the arbitration of priorities.
Keep in mind that the devil is in the details
Some may be tempted to delegate the detailed definition of User Stories or the recipe to experts. The risk is to lose sight of these "details", which in the end often prove to be the differentiators.
A good product idea is nothing without its successful materialization.
This often requires an in-depth understanding of elements that, seen from above and from afar, seem like details.
From the user's point of view, these are not details. They may even be implicit criteria for product adoption. For example, the fluidity of the user experience, the ease of assisted input, automatic saving, etc.
The valuable contribution of various experts (UX, etc.) should therefore not be an opportunity for the Product Manager to disconnect from the sensitive experience of his product.
Capturing signals from the field
So a good product is first and foremost one that ticks the boxes in the field, in its practical aspects that prove important in use.
It can be difficult for the Product Manager, exposed to strategic stakes and strong pressures, to devote the necessary time and attention to certain implementation details.
This quality of listening requires, in addition to availability, a strong ability to distinguish critical details from the rest. It's a question of hearing and catching potentially impactful details among technical or field feedback (user, support, etc.).
The good Product Manager is therefore anchored: he remains sensitive to signals near and far.
In this respect, his totem animal could be the elephant, which perceives subtle signals up to 30 kilometers away (the highly sensitive surface of the soles of their feet detects low-frequency vibrations).
The Product Manager, a profile of excellence in these two opposing dimensions
It's easy to find a profile capable of analyzing both the conceptual and global levels, as well as the practical details.
But what the company needs here is not just decent work, but truly high-level work, requiring at least full intellectual commitment.
After all, what's at stake is the creation of value for the company!
Every act of Product Management impacts the ability to generate:
- revenue (for a commercial company)
- and/or valuable utility (for an organization financed by sources other than the monetization of products and services).
Product Management is not just another function: it's an investment with lasting effects, on which the company's survival and growth depend.
A strong link between the Product Manager and the developers
This ability to link global issues with concrete technical choices is reflected in the relationship built up with the production team. You need to know how to share the challenges with the developers (and other experts involved in the product) in terms of the product, milestones, and so on. During this sharing, the Product Manager must also be able to listen to feedback and technical needs.
The Product Manager's communication skills are fundamental to creating a lasting collaborative relationship, based on respect and loyalty.
While all team members bear the responsibility of "teaming up", in practice, the Product Manager, sometimes perceived as the "customer", carries more weight.
In fact, he or she is often implicitly responsible for instilling this virtuous dynamic.
This requires certain moral qualities, but also great solidity and support (coaching, internal support, community of practice, etc.)! I'll develop this aspect in a future article.
So much for our conviction about the exceptional profile required for the position of Product Manager.
And in your company, do your Product Managers have the support and training they need to develop, exercise and reinforce the skills that are essential to their success?
