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👋 Hi, I'm Julie. Welcome to my Product Management hub!
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👋 Hi, I'm Julie. Welcome to my Product Management hub!

My Product Philosophy

Product Management as a discipline has become as wide and varied as the individuals who practice it. While some industries require their product managers to have a computer science or engineering background, others look for PMs with more of a business acumen, or those with a bias toward user experience and design thinking.
But as with all things in life, I believe that diversity in the backgrounds and skillsets of product managers is crucial to building technology that effectively serves the world we live in (not all technology products are built for businesses, engineers, or designers, after all). So while some PMs might have a highly-specialized superpower, I believe there are four non-negotiable traits that can set any type of product manager apart.

1. Empathy

em·pa·thy
/ˈempəTHē/
noun
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
I promise I didn’t just include the definition above to add style to this post, but I fear that empathy is becoming one of those words that is used so often it’s begun to lose its meaning. In product, we usually hear the word used to describe the way a PM needs to connect with their users, which is of course very true. But empathy is not just for users. It’s for our colleagues too.
Just as important as understanding the mindset and the problems a user is facing, a great product manager needs to also put themselves into the shoes of their collaborators. What drives them? How do they feel about the work they’re doing? Are they using their unique talents? Do they feel valued as part of the team?
When a product manager is able to understand the feelings of everyone on their team, they’re able to lead in a way that fosters openness, innovation, and high quality work. This, inevitably, will lead to a better product.

2. Curiosity

A good product manager needs an innate sense of curiosity. We must think critically about the problems we’re looking to solve and challenge the things we think we already know. Why are we building this? How do we think we’ll do it? Are there ways to do it better? How have people tried to solve this problem in the past, and what happened?
Those are some examples of what a curious product manager’s thought process might be like. A good PM will continue to question, and a great PM will seek out the answers themselves. A healthy dose of curiosity should result in research — so for every question we ask, we need to attempt to find an answer. Instead of throwing these kinds of questions out to the team and hoping for answers, we might bring them up for discussion and have the results of our research at the ready.

3. Effective Communication

The keyword here is effective. I want you to think about the last time you experienced a breakdown in communication at work. When someone misses an important detail, you might think, didn’t you read my email? Weren’t you listening during the meeting?
The truth is, there are lots of ways to communicate and many ways to be a good communicator. As a product manager, the key here is: to whom are you communicating? What do you know about them and the way they best receive information? This also ties in with having empathy for your colleagues — my first non-negotiable trait for being a great PM.
Often, product managers are responsible for communicating details throughout the entire company: executives, engineering, design, sales, marketing, customer success, and other PMs. Perhaps the executive did not read your email thoroughly because their inbox was showing 1,200 unread messages, and the engineering manager did not hear you during that meeting because they were trying to unblock a developer at the same time. Instead of taking on the mindset of “Too bad! If you didn’t get the message, that’s on you,” a great PM will meet people where they are. We can be empathetic and curious and find the most effective way to communicate with our colleagues. Perhaps a quick phone call or meeting would best serve the executive, and an email or Slack message would be better for engineering.

4. Servant Leadership

In any organization, the product manager needs to serve as the guiding force for their team and set aside their ego. We hold the vision for our product and need to aide our colleagues while empowering them to do their best work as individuals. The best way for a PM to demonstrate servant leadership is to walk the walk: practice empathy, be accountable, listen and be receptive to feedback, commit to your personal growth, and support the growth of others.
If a product manager is able to consistently demonstrate these qualities in themselves to their colleagues, teams will gain trust in the product, the process, and themselves.
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