Product Management Skills
Martin Eriksson defines product management as the intersection between business, technology, and user experience. He believes that a good product manager must be experienced in at least one of these areas and passionate about all of them. But what exact skills does a product manager need? From communication and strategic thinking to prioritisation and analytical skills, the list is long. This content looks at product management skills in different ways.
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LATEST POSTS
Why you Need a Product Analytics Playbook
When it comes to successfully implementing a data-informed approach to product analytics, it’s easy to find lists of tips and tactics. It’s much harder to put together a strategy you can return to time and again. Every product is different, of course. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. But we do have common methodologies for framing Read more »
Product Management is About Making Mistakes
Once upon a time, I met a product manager of a company who was leading a freemium model product, with some success. He regularly interviewed users to work out their needs, he gathered and analyzed usage data of the product to extract new requirements, and he defined new features with a high level of detail. Read more »
Innovation: Best Practice for Product Leaders
In a world where the pace of change is constantly increasing and becoming more complex, can you really afford to stay still? Living and working in the United Arab Emirates, with its blindingly rich cities and unbelievably luxe lifestyles, I see that the value of innovation is obvious. After all, how does this crazy-wealthy region Read more »
Pros and Cons of Market Research Tactics
When it comes to capturing the public’s imagination, few works of fiction have ever done it as well as the movie Jurassic Park did almost 25 years ago – I couldn’t believe it’s been that long either. The special effects were insane for the time, but even more amazing was how the way they resurrected Read more »
Let’s Stop Talking About Human Error: It’s Your Product
What if I said that there was no such thing as human error, only poorly designed products? Ok, park your pitchfork. Let’s approach this slowly, starting with Emma. It’s pay day in the small firm and hope is running high. Emma, who otherwise enjoys kayaking and reading sci-fi, manages the one-person finance office. She oversees Read more »
Freelance Consulting and Product Management - Time to Join the gig Economy?
When should a start-up hire its first product manager? What responsibilities should this role include? These are common discussions, with many views, and no right answers – it depends on the founding team, current funding situation, industry focus, and product offering. But it’s likely there will always be a fair bit of product management work Read more »
How to fix Runaway Project Timelines
We’ve all been there: two months into a two-week project and the end still isn’t anywhere in sight. Sometimes a good project goes bad, you learn your lesson, and move on. But sometimes the issue is deeper than that, and it’s not a one-off fluke, but an institutional issue that keeps repeating itself. It’s so Read more »
Finding Flow in Your Product Management Career
A few years ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts about working as a consultant in product management. At that time in London – we’re talking 2011/2012 – it was, dare I say, a bold step to leave a full-time, good product position to go freelance. I’m happy to say that over the past few Read more »
A Product Manager's Guide to Strong Team Communication
Product managers and their more recent Agile brethren, product owners, hold one of the most demanding positions in an organisation. As the crucial nexus in the product development framework, their plate is all too often full with business demands, technical requirements, and marketing concerns. Product management in this context can feel like chaos, the type Read more »
Three Superpowers of a Product Manager
As a product manager it’s not uncommon to feel pulled in a million different directions as you work to meet the needs of your customers, developers and company stakeholders. While there are a large number of tools which claim to help you to create value, for me, quite frankly, it boils down to only a few secret weapons Read more »