7 Habits of Highly Effective Product Managers (2023)

FAQs

What are the top 3 things that make a good product manager? ›

Aspiring PMs should consider three primary factors when evaluating a role: core competencies, emotional intelligence (EQ), and company fit. The best PMs I have worked with have mastered the core competencies, have a high EQ, and work for the right company for them.

The easy answer to this question — “What makes a great product manager?” — would be a list of skills. A long list that would include: subject matter expertise, outstanding communication skills, market knowledge, leadership ability, innovativeness, strong researching skills, the ability to think strategically, etc.

At a high-level, there are really 3 main areas of Product Management – Discovery, Planning, and Development: I.

Understand the Market, the Customers, and the Product

One of the most important first steps for a new product manager is to understand the market. The best way to do so is to get as close to the customer as you can.

Some of the top strengths that product managers should possess include strong communication skills, the ability to think strategically, the ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks effectively, the ability to work well in a team environment, and strong problem-solving skills.

With great responsibility, comes great stress. Due to its versatility, the role of a product manager is extremely challenging. Although this career is also very rewarding and fulfilling, it can often be frustrating for many reasons.

Work with product leadership and company leadership to set product objectives aligned with high-level strategy. Prioritize the most strategically valuable feature ideas. Meet with sales, marketing, legal, and leadership to evaluate the viability of feature ideas.

The typical product manager has worldwide responsibility for three products.

What are the 5 P's of product management? ›

The 5 areas you need to make decisions about are: PRODUCT, PRICE, PROMOTION, PLACE AND PEOPLE. Although the 5 Ps are somewhat controllable, they are always subject to your internal and external marketing environments.

The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a “marketing mix,” or the combined tools and methodologies used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives.

All products are connected to three things: developers, users, and a business. Developers (or engineers) are the people who can write and deploy code. Companies usually have people working on the product that aren't programming, but the people updating the code are the only folks on the team who are strictly necessary.

Kotler suggested that products can be divided into three levels: core product, actual product and augmented product. The core product is defined as the benefit that the product brings to the customer.

CPO / Chief Product Officer

A Chief Product Officer (CPO) is the most senior product person in an organisation. They usually manage more than one team of product managers and represent product in the C-suite or management team.

Methodical organization, creative thinking, and vision are just a few assets necessary to be an effective PM. This variety of project manager traits is what attracts so many to the field, and makes their work endlessly interesting and challenging.

Product managers need to be able to cut through the noise and recognise what is important for the users and company and filter out the rest. You will always have incoming requests from internal and external stakeholders, so the ability to deal and filter these requests accordingly is crucial.

What are the six key team behaviors of high performing teams? ›

Salary Ranges for Product Managers

The salaries of Product Managers in the US range from $28,000 to $525,000 , with a median salary of $111,000 . The middle 57% of Product Managers makes between $111,000 and $242,000, with the top 86% making $525,000.

The next question he will ask is: “How to find your superpower as a product manager?” His answer is simple: the ability to provide context. Product managers stay constantly connected with every team, and their communication skills are crucial at all stages.

Also on the list of top-paying companies for product managers are Block, Google, Workday, Walmart, and Amazon, with salaries ranging from $151,000 to $156,000.

The average age of an employed product manager is 39 years old.

Product management is a well-paid job and has a high level of job satisfaction. The product manager's salary is primarily based on years of experience, job location and skills. The average annual salary for product managers can range from $61,000 to $200,000 per year.

To put it simply - a lot! Depending upon the organization you end up working with, Product Management is one of the highest-paying jobs in the corporate world. An Indian MBA graduate can earn a median base salary of ₹ 15.2 lakhs per annum, excluding other salary components like bonuses.

Dark side #1: The responsibilities and boundaries of the Product Manager role are often unclear. Dark side #2: Your days are often filled with meetings, leaving you little to no focus time. Dark side #3: Everything always takes longer than you think; especially software development.

The salary depends on various factors such as experience, skills, location, and company. Product managers are in high demand because they can see the big picture and think strategically about product development.

Lack of opportunity—There aren't too many product managers content to do their existing job forever; they're looking for chances to advance, take on more responsibility, and expand their skill set.

How many hours a week do product managers work? ›

Product managers work full time, usually more than 40 hours per week. They often work longer hours that extend into evenings and weekends, particularly when there are deadlines approaching. They spend time on computers, conducting research, and reading and writing reports.

Read below to learn the different salaries for product managers based on their level of experience. Entry-level product managers earn an average salary of $74,620 annually. Mid-level product managers can earn an average of $113,000 annually. Senior-level product managers see an average salary of $208,000 annually.

Team and stakeholders management.

On the other hand, the product manager has to negotiate with stakeholders and balance their demands and expectations.

Product management (PM) is a challenging career. It's high stakes. It's demanding. It can make you want to tear your hair out.

The building blocks of an effective marketing strategy include the 6 P's of marketing: product, price, place, promotion, people, and presentation. The effective integration of the 6 P's of marketing can serve as the foundation for an effective growth strategy.

In 1987, Mintzberg published his first article on the 5 P's of Strategy. Each of the five P's represents a distinct approach to strategy. This includes Plan, Ploy, Pattern, Position and Perspective. These five elements enable a company to develop a more successful strategy.

The 3 Cs of Brand Development: Customer, Company, and Competitors. There is only a handful of useful texts on strategy. Any MBA student will be familiar with these: Competitive Advantage and Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter.

The 3 Cs of brand messaging: Consistency, clarity and character.

What are the 3 Cs of positioning? ›

It consists of the company, the customer, and the competition, which are the three critical components to creating a successful strategy. Briefly, the company must be able to execute the strategy, the strategy must meet a customer need, and differentiation from the competition must be achieved.

Although the product development process differs by industry, it can essentially be broken down into seven stages: ideation, research, planning, prototyping, sourcing, costing, and commercialization. Use the following development framework to bring your own product idea to market.

Team and stakeholders management.

On the other hand, the product manager has to negotiate with stakeholders and balance their demands and expectations.

Product managers are responsible for crowdsourcing, developing, and curating ideas that will deliver value to customers. You own the organization's idea management process and determine which ideas should be promoted to your backlog in order to propel the product strategy forward.

Some of the top strengths that product managers should possess include strong communication skills, the ability to think strategically, the ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks effectively, the ability to work well in a team environment, and strong problem-solving skills.

The four are introduction, growth, maturity, and then decline. Products and companies progress through these stages of development and the way that you know which stage they're in is how much revenue they're making over time.

In most organisations, the PM does not own the P&L. The P&L ownership lies with a general manager or the business unit leader. A PM deals with financials when preparing a business plan, and tracking usage.

Good product managers focus on learning. Whether it's customer interviews, shipping product or looking at user metrics, good product managers are always laser focused on what they can learn that makes an impact to customers. Bad product managers exclusively focus on shipping.

What is the top priority of a product manager? ›

A key responsibility of product managers is to identify the most impactful projects to work on. This requires a critical process: prioritization.

Product managers are mid-level roles. While you don't necessarily have to have a direct product management background, you should have professional experience and demonstrable skills in communication, leadership, and strategy. Product managers are responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and features of a product.

Do product managers need to be technical? Though you won't necessarily be required to code, a basic comprehension of programming languages is a massive advantage in the tech industry. SQL, Python, C#, HTML, and CSS are crucial for product managers because they're usually used to create tech products.