secondfret

I previously worked in print design, web design, content management, and photography. I’d been paid to write, design, take photos, develop, teach, edit, manage projects and people, launch publications, improve content quality, and grow audiences. I was a user of the website I now work for before I was an employee. I was hired to run content but I was interested in every part of the organization and found myself speaking up about design and product while being a fierce defender of the user’s perspective. Product management is my dream job that I never even knew existed. It allows me to leverage my seemingly total mess of random skills in a focused and productive way. It presses all the right buttons in my brain and I love the challenges it brings me every day.

Product managers should have the following skills: 1. A strong grasp of the industry they operate in on a macro and micro level. What has been done? What hasn’t? Where is the industry going? What do we need to do to keep up with the competition? What can we do that blows past what anyone else is doing? 2. The ability to speak as a user or potential user. Do you actually use the product? Can you put yourself in a place to experience the same struggles and frustrations and your users? Can you see the perspectives of those who are currently unwilling to adopt your product? Can you wrangle all of this into a product roadmap optimized for maximum impact? 3. The ability to speak the language and gain the respect of everyone on the project team. Can you speak from a place of authority to a group of designers and developers looking for leadership? Can you spot holes in the user flows presented by your designers, understand the technical hurdles that your developers are telling you stand in the way of success, and call out product copy that feels off brand all at once as requests and problems come at you from every angle? 4. Above all: the ability to make decisions when no one else can or will. Product management is about decision making. When everyone has opposing ideas, when the data is inconclusive and doesn’t give you the magical clear path forward you hoped for, when everyone looks to you for what to do next, can you lead the way? When there’s no clear answer, can you set up the framework and tests necessary to get to one? When your organization can’t make decisions, it can’t build a coherent strategy, it can’t make bets on the future, and it can’t solve big problems. Can you take on that responsibility?