"Je bent een soort mini-CEO - met alle verantwoordelijkheid ... maar zonder enige autoriteit." -
Josh Elman - Partner bij Greylock, voormalig productmanager bij Twitter, Facebook en LinkedIn

Alle "zachte" vaardigheden of "harde" vaardigheden die je als productmanager nodig hebt, komen allemaal neer op één kernvaardigheid: empathie.

Ik werkte 4 maanden samen met een collega-productmanager voordat ik me realiseerde dat hij een ontwikkelaar was. Hij noemde nooit iets technischs! Wat hij deed, was veruit de beste vertrouwensrelaties opbouwen met ingenieurs die ik heb gezien. Hij 'heeft' ze. In ruil daarvoor respecteerden ze hem, gaven hem slap en zetten altijd alles in het werk dat ze met hem deden.

"Software is een teamsport"

Ik was de minst technische persoon in een zeer technisch team en de meest technische persoon in een redelijk niet-technisch team. Het hangt er allemaal vanaf hoe je werkt met de vaardigheden van je teamgenoten.

Technisch zijn kan zijn valkuilen hebben:

"Wanneer u een ingenieur bent die product [management] gaat gebruiken en uw ingenieur zegt tegen u:" Oh, dat is echt moeilijk om te doen. " Je eerste instinct is: 'Oh? Niet voor mij ... ik zou dat in een middag kunnen doen. ' Ik moest dat heel snel overwinnen. Dat is geen productieve uitkomst. Software is een teamsport. "
Adam Nash - CEO van Wealthfront en een voormalig productmanager en ingenieur

Nu het zachte spul uit de weg is, gaan we ervoor.

As always, a good Product person brings it back to outcomes, and Lulu Cheng – Product Manager at Pinterest – lists the goals to consider when deciding which technical skills a PM should focus on:

1. “Trace a user issue (or set of issues) back to the underlying problem."
2. “Estimate how long it will take to build A vs. B."
3. “Anticipate implementation challenges with a particular proposal."
4. “Brainstorm potential solutions to technical problems."
5. “Identify opportunities that arise from new technologies."

The Top 5 Technical Skills Every Product Manager Needs to Know:

1. Data Collection, Extraction and Analysis

Why

1. You need to understand what your users are doing to make good product decisions.
2. If you do not understand how your data is collected, you cannot determine its integrity.

What to learn

SQL. I hear this touted as a “must-have"- though I have worked with some great PMs who don’t know SQL, they end up asking the SQL-literate for data.

How to learn it

I have personally used the interactive tutorials at W3Schools, and Codecademy’s Learn SQL and SQL: Analyzing Business Metrics interactive courses. After that, ask your engineer to set you up with read-only SQL access to try product questions.

Feeling ambitious?

Try creating automated query scripts and tasks in Python.

3rd-Party Analytics Tools

(Mixpanel, Amplitude, Looker, Tableau, Google Analytics, etc.)

Download

There are two key areas every Product Manager should understand regarding analytics tools:

1. Understand how each of these tools can help you answer product questions.
2. Understand how the underlying tracking is done and how it is interpreted.

As my fellow Product Manager at HourlyNerd, David Connolly, used to quip: “I think we should run an analysis on how much of our analytics we actually trust."

Amplitude funnel tracking alone is nice…

…but Amplitude funnel tracking integrated with an Optimizely A/B test can really deliver an actionable insight! You should know why and how this is done.

How to learn it:
Dive into documentation. There are usually simplified tutorials and videos walking you through the main parts, but peek into actual code implementation. Also, ask Support and Sales.

2. Excel (Yes. Really.)

Why

You can get a lot out of SQL and Analytics Dashboards, but a good Pivot Table and even some VBA could make data a lot more flexible, visual, and easier to interpret.

What to learn

Pivot Tables

Pivot tables are easy to learn and help manipulate complicated data sets. They essentially pump out a dynamic filterable table or chart.

How to learn it: Honestly, Youtube videos and Microsoft’s Support Site. You can even combine your skills and learn how to Create a Pivot Table Using SQL

VBA

VBA is the coding language for Excel. It lets you build “Macros" to automate anything in Excel. Pull online data, automate data matching, etc. Helps you with “Don’t repeat yourself."

How to learn it: StackOverflow for specific use cases (like matching data from different columns in different workbooks) and Microsoft’s Support Site for specific functions.

3 . Experimentation (A/B Testing)

Why

Product intuition is great, but actually testing ideas with users is essential. Get buy-in or setup experimentation infrastructure for non-technical iteration on products.

What to learn

Need a non-developer solution?

• Unbounce (landing pages – no development needed).
• Optimizely (Change copy/design on your own site without pushing code – can start with a single code snippet).

Need an internal A/B test?

• Determine how to design an experiment and hypothesis.
• Discuss with your developers what to track in your DB and how to divide up your samples.

How to learn it

First: What is A/B, Split, and Multivariate testing?
Then: What is statistical significance (basics)?
(Hint: Use Optimizely’s A/B test sample size calculator)
Finally: How to track an A/B test’s effect on your bottom line using your new Analytics and A/B testing skills

“How can I A/B test if I haven’t built the new feature yet?"

That brings us to #4…

4. Interactive Prototyping

Via Invision

Why

Engineering time is too valuable to be wasted on iterations of products that have not been validated at all.

What to learn

Non-technical: There are plenty of interactive prototyping tools out there for the non-technical person.

• Invision lets you upload mockups from design to make a clickable interactive prototype.
• Proto.io lets you create interactive mobile app prototypes with drag and drop components.
• UserTesting and similar sites let you send in these prototypes and get videos of users answering questions about the site. You should run interviews yourself, too, of course.

Technical: That brings us to #5…

5. Learn *about* Code

“You need to understand what your engineers are saying, even if you have no opinion on the results of the conversations."

Why

This is hotly contested, but in the end, the necessity for this really depends on two things:

1. “What does your team value?"

Remember: Not everyone on a team needs to have the same skills. You can help each other.

You will want to learn enough to communicate technical details to non-technical stakeholders.

2. “What do your users value?"

Remember: As a Product Manager, you are the voice of the user.

Are your users technical? Some technical understanding is likely necessary to “get" your users.

What to learn

HTML, Javascript

Nowadays, these tools are basic. This simplifies building prototypes, implementing 3rd party tools, or tweaking client-side A/B tests.

How to learn?
Countless courses are available online, but I suggest just starting with W3Schools and Codecademy or going to a weekend bootcamp.

Your Company’s Technology Stack

Understand what languages, frameworks, and architecture your company uses and why.

As Cliff Giley from The Clever PM puts it:

“…Microsoft C#? …Java? …relational…or non-relational databases? Do you know the difference…? A large part of your job as a PM consists of talking with engineers and discussing and assessing options to solve problems – you need to understand what they’re saying, even if you have no opinion on the results of the conversations."

How to learn

Ask an engineer about the stack and why it was used. Also, try to build a small app in your stack with one of the countless MOOCs or bootcamps to get a basic feel for what your team uses.

Closing Thoughts

If you learn to deal with data from collection to presentation, learn how to experiment, learn how to demonstrate ideas through a prototype, and learn how to speak your developers’ language, you will become a more valuable PM to all of your teams, and – most importantly – to your users.

Remember: “Software is a team sport."

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