Comments on: #1 Skill That A Product Manager Needs To Have

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:39:02 +0000

Leon: I think that you’ve hit it on the head – product mangers don’t “do” that much, rather they “make” things happen. Talk about a tough job!

By: Leon Rutten

Leon Rutten — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:45:19 +0000

I tend to agree with PPM: Product Management is all about making decisions, which require good judgement, but the prime skill of a product manager is facilitating those desicions and creating buy-in of all stakeholders.

A product manager can never oversee all consequences by himself (unless you’re a very, very small company) so the prime skill is to bring all stakeholders together, get a desicion making proces in place and make sure the right decisions are made with buy-in of all stakeholders.

A Product Manager that makes (dictatorial) judgment and choices all by himself is doomed to fail.

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:40:01 +0000

PPM: I think that we’re going to have to disagree on this one. In all honesty, a product manager who was a lousy communicator but who had great judgment would beat out one who had great communication but lousy judgment. With all that being said, I think that you’ve done a great job of capturing what makes the product manger job so madding: you need to have such a diverse mix of skills to do the job well…

By: PuristProductManagement

PuristProductManagement — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:39:04 +0000

Oh no, I have to disagree. I am 100% convinced that the number 1 skill a product manager needs is COMMUNICATION. The best product managers are lobbyists, sales man, purchasers, politicians, diplomats. Think: Ghandi+Alan Sugar+Koffi Annan+Barak Obama and you’re getting closer to the perfect product manager. The best product managers don’t need great judgement, they need the ability to collate evidence from their customers to prove or disprove their product roadmap meets their needs.

By: radio publicity

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By: Abid Chaudhry

Abid Chaudhry — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:29:50 +0000

Thanks Jim. I’m still relatively fresh as a Product Manager, only having managed 3-4 products at two companies over the past 3-4 years. I’ve have the benefit/detriment of being in a situation where I was the sole voice on PM decisions and thats been the biggest help to shaping my judgment ability.

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:26:42 +0000

Abid: ah ha! That is the secret to being a good Product Manager. Look, if you don’t have years of experience to fall back on, then what you need to do is to come up with a backup plan. One easy way to handle judgment decisions is to ask another peer / mentor what they would do – use their years of experience. If that’s not possible, then make a decision and set up a “trip-point” where you will revisit the decision and make changes if it’s not going the way that you had expected it to go. Oh, and make sure that you learn from your experiences!

By: Abid Chaudhry

Abid Chaudhry — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:18:32 +0000

The question I have is without having years of experience, how do you establish proper judgement? I know that with me I had to make mistakes and errors before I learned the right way to do things.

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:55:56 +0000

Andrew: I hate to show my age, but when asked this question I always think back to the rock group Rush’s song “New World Man” in which they say “… He’s old enough to know what’s right, But young enough not to choose it.”

I view wisdom as knowing what the correct answer is. I view judgment as knowing what the right thing to do is. Note that these are two completely different things!

By: Andrew Meyer

Andrew Meyer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:28:50 +0000

Jim,

how do you differentiate judgment from wisdom?