A very particular set of skills

4 min readJan 31, 2017

In Part 1 I covered how a builder’s aptitude and servant-leadership are critical to great Product Managers.

However, these alone are not enough. The PM job requires a broad mix of skills: delving into the data and deriving insights; setting a vision for the team and inspiring them to action; working across the organisation and doing whatever it takes to get things done.

Your Product Manager must be good at generating insights, setting direction, and getting things done.

Here’s how this breaks down into specific skills:

Generating Insights

Proactively identifies big impact opportunities and knows when to be bold — and when to be iterative.
Deeply understands the problem space (the challenge in all its dimensions, including user and partner needs, challenges and expectations).
Effectively breaks down and scopes the solution, connecting the dots among all dimensions of the solution space (users and partners, competitors, internal capabilities, marketing, commercial, technology, engineering, etc.)
Performs appropriate research and makes effective use of data when making decisions.
Quickly and efficiently validates assumptions / hypotheses before investing heavily (e.g. dual-track scrum).
Group Level: Has a deep and broad understanding of the strategic context (e.g. market structure and dynamics, competitors, their strategies, SWOT, etc.), and knows how to position us for success.

Setting Direction

Starts with Why and grounds all plans in the broader strategy, core company values and objectives.
Formulates a clear & compelling product vision (what success looks like) and associated plan (how to get there), aligned to the tribe/company.
Understands and articulates how to achieve meaningful, sustainable differentiation.
Knows how to identify and nurture growth iteratively.
Ensures that there are clear, up-to-date and on-strategy objectives and indicators at all times, by appropriately setting and continuously managing KPIs, OKRs, backlogs, etc.
Group Level: Formulates a clear strategy (Why and How we win), aligned to the company strategy.

Getting things done

Delivers substantial business impact (or makes strong directional progress) in line with the strategy.
Attuned to the team’s morale, and knows when and how to motivate them.
Biases for action and knows when decisions can be made quickly and safely.
Proactively identifies stakeholders, gains and maintains buy-in at all times.
Values and instils discipline, ensuring that teams operate with an effective operational cadence and drives the “rhythm of the business”
Communicates effectively in writing and continuously seeks to remove complexity from the execution.
Group Level: Can operate at different levels and knows when to operate at each level.
Group Level: Proactively and effectively manages team and people allocations.
Group Level: Hires and develops the best.
Group Level: Designs and operates an effective organisation, communicates responsibility clearly and enables the different constituent parts to make decisions effectively, quickly and in a loosely-coupled way.
Group Level: Designs and operates processes so that the organisation is highly-aligned, information is widely available and communication is predictable, quick and efficient.

What NOT to do

Sometimes it’s easier to understand what’s expected by looking at what not to do. Below are two handy 1-pager cheat-sheets, the first for Product Managers and the second one for Group Product Managers, with examples of good and bad behaviours.

PM on one page

GPM on one page

This combination of soft + hard skills is what makes the product job hard to define, and harder to do well. But it is also what makes the discipline so rewarding. In my experience, people who successfully transition into Product rarely leave!

And stepping back from the particulars I come back to the thought that builders make the best product people.

— Piero

About the author

Piero Sierra is Sr. Director of Product at Skyscanner, one of Europe’s fastest growing technology companies. Previously a Partner at Microsoft where he ran various high-profile consumer products including Skype, OneDrive, and the Windows user experience.