Learn how the skills you already have can make you a great PM, and how to build the skills you're missing. Includes the Venn Diagram of PM Skills
Text of How to Succeed as a PM with your Unique Skills
DIFFERENT SKILLS = DIFFERENT STRENGTHS AS A PM Jackie Bavaro - @jackiebo
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT IS ALL ABOUT FILLING IN THE EMPTY SPACE ANY EXPERIENCESYOUVE HAD CAN MAKEYOU A BETTER PM
TheVenn diagram of PM Skills Examples of how different roles have built up those skills How to build the missing skills How to find a company and role thats good for you How to use your unique skills to succeed as a PM Overview
Design a great product Ship It Strategy & Vision Leadership Customer Focus Product Design Analysis & Synthesis Action Oriented Prioritization Project Management Technical Skills Communication
CUSTOMER FOCUS Spend time with people Watch them use products and look for where they run into problems Learn what their goals are Practice framing products in terms of customers and goals Build up some compelling anecdotes to make the customers real for you Check out the IDEO Human Centered Design Toolkit
PRODUCT DESIGN Use a lot of products Always think about how they could be improved. Double check your improvements for customer focus Stay on top of new trends, notice what you like and dont like, and why Consider ways that you could apply something that works well on one product to another kind of product Read some books on product design
ANALYSIS Learn the fundamentals of data analysis Check out Lean Startup and the KISSMetrics blog Practice if you can Sit in on data analysis meetings Play with the data yourself
TECHNICAL SKILLS Take some courses Optimize for learning skills that you could actually apply at your job: CSS, Scripting, SQL Discuss technical issues with engineers Ask them to help you ramp up
BEING MORE ACTION ORIENTED: SCRAPPINESS Be Brave Make a habit of stepping up Do, Delegate, or Decide you dont need it Look for times you or a teammate feels blocked - thats a sign theres an opportunity to be scrappy Yes, this is hard work
PRIORITIZATION Get comfortable with the need for prioritization If you waited until the product was perfect it would never ship Were not always right about how important things are Once the product launches youll learn much more from your customers Decide what youre optimizing for Are you testing a hypothesis? Making a use case possible? Aiming for a quality bar?
PICKING THE RIGHT ROLE FORYOU
Consider making the transition at your current company Consider going after a TPM or EPM job Look for a role where your skills will be valued How do you split the work with designers and marketing? What do you look for in a PM? Look for a company where youll be able to learn a lot You might want to pick a company with lots of PMs so you can learn from them
USEYOUR UNIQUE SKILLSTO SUCCEED
Use your skills to identify areas where you can be helpful eg. put together a marketing plan, do some data analysis Especially great if you can use your skill to be helpful early on Pick up experience and ask for advice in the areas you dont know. Ask how to learn, dont just pass questions along Share your skills Build up your credibility by teaching other people what you know
...oh, and maybe buy our book THE END Also: pmblog.quora.com
