What makes a great product manager?

I guess we all have an idea of what makes a great product manager if we have been one, but it is nice to touchbase with some research that identifies some of the key concepts and check for areas where we can grow.

http://www.svproduct.com/papers/productmanager.pdf

Silicon Valley Product Group has done some interesting research that states that it is very hard to find someone who does product marketing and product management very well and to excel in both areas is very rare. This is an interesting viewpoint to challenge our skillsets. Do we operate better in one area rather than another? What does this mean for our role?

The research asks some interesting questions that as product managers it is important to ask.

KEY QUESTIONS....

Have we made this product as easy to use as humanly possible?
• Will this product succeed against the competition? Not today’s competition, but the competition that will be in the market when we ship?
• Do I know customers that will really buy this product? Not the product I wish we were going to build, but what we’re really going to build?
• Is my product truly differentiated? Can I explain the differentiation to a company executive in two minutes? To a smart customer in one minute? To an industry analyst in 30 seconds?
• Will the product actually work?
• Is the product a whole product? How will customers actually think about and buy the product? Is it consistent with how we plan to sell it?
• Are the product’s strengths consistent with what’s important to our customers? Are we positioning these strengths as aggressively as possible?
• Is the product worth money? How much money? Why? Can customers get it cheaper elsewhere?
• Do I understand what the rest of the product team thinks is good about the product? Is it consistent with my own view?
The reason that "thinking time" is so critical each day, and why the job of product manager is so all-consuming, is that these questions require serious and ongoing consideration.

© 2005 Silicon Valley Product Group www.svproduct.com Page 25

Food for thought..