Posted by:
arielseidman
on 28 September 2013
Over the years many people have asked me what it takes to be a product manager. For awhile I gave them an answer that required lots of reading. A few years back I realized that while reading is useful there is a much faster way to determine whether or not you have the chops to be a product manager.
- Try attending 3 meetings each day for the next week explaining to people with different ways of thinking, different motivations for working, and different financial incentives why they should do something.
- Try getting 3 people who don’t report to you (i.e. you don’t control their time) to build something entirely new with you.
- Try taking an email that deserves 200 words and cutting it down to 20 words so people actually read it.
- Try telling the CEO that the business model we rely upon for 70% of our revenue is a dead end and convince him or her to adopt a different business model. (advanced topic)
- Try taking a feature list with 40 things and cutting it down to 4 things you’ll actually do.
Attending conferences and/or buying certifications programs in product management is a complete waste of time and money. Instead, dive into it and along the way you’ll figure out whether product management is for you.