Product Skills Assessment Flashcards
1 Critical Thinking
I make time to continuously question the status quo and see if there is a better way to do things. I also think critically about how I’m spending my time to ensure I’m balancing all aspects of the product role
The most important skill for a great product manager is to be able to think critically about any situation - whether it’s questioning assumptions, challenging processes, knowing when to use which skill or tool, or even managing your own time to make sure you are balancing the core elements of the job.
2 Empathy
I understand my customers, stakeholders, and teams. I consider their perspectives, contexts, and biases by proactively seeking different inputs and perspectives, and consider them when making decisions. I regularly practice active listening, empathy exercises, and immersion techniques.
This is a critical skill for a Product Manager, whether it’s empathising with our customers or our colleagues. It’s a muscle we can exercise and learn to get better at.
3 Curiosity
I always question every assumption, challenge ways of working, and set aside time to keep an eye on market trends, competitors, and industry news.
Always question the status quo - this is the desire to fully understand a problem from all angles, to want to gather information from a diverse range of sources, and to understand how outcomes would have an impact on success.
4 Strategic Thinking
I proactively step back from my day to day work to ensure we are headed in the right direction, question leadership to ensure our goals stack up to our strategy and vision, and always bring the discussion back to strategic goals.
At its simplest, strategic thinking is an ability to plan for the future. For product managers it is about thinking beyond the work currently in progress to what comes next, and ensuring that all our work aligns with company goals, strategy, and vision.
5 Facilitation
I have a toolkit of workshop formats and facilitation techniques and I know when which each is relevant. I facilitate 1:1 and group conversations to ensure maximum productivity in any meeting.
As generalists in a room full of specialists one of the product manager superpowers is to bring together our team and stakeholders to bring out their insights, get everyone on the same page, and drive to decisions.
6 Communication
I schedule regular updates with my team and stakeholders across multiple channels and customise the content and cadence of my updates for each audience.
Communication is critical to product management so that we can make sure our team and stakeholders know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and whether we’re achieving the goals we’ve set out or not.
7 Leadership
I set a vision for my product area together with the team based on our company vision, strategy, and goals. I work with them to execute towards our shared goals, always reminding them of the vision and stories behind why we’re doing what we’re doing.
For product managers, leadership is about setting a direction and getting everyone to rally around that goal. We can’t rely on authority, but instead need to be able to influence.
8 Coaching
I am able to unlock the potential in other product people, helping them in their growth and development, and working with them to be the most effective product manager they can be.
Helping other product people excel is at the core of being a product leader but something all product managers should practice.
Technical Skills
9 Metrics
9 Metrics
I understand how to segment customers, use cohort analysis, statistical significance, correlation vs causation, leading vs lagging indicators, and more in order to answer the questions I have.
Everything we do as product managers should be driven by evidence, so understanding our metrics and how to use them to make decisions is critical.
Technical Skills
10 Hypotheses & Testing
10 Hypotheses & Testing
I understand how to formulate good hypotheses and how they help us test assumptions and focus on outcomes. I also know how to plan experiments to validate those hypotheses, and which types of experiments are the most useful in different scenarios.
One of the best ways to become evidence driven and outcome focused is to start thinking about our work as a series of hypotheses and how to test them. Formulating hypotheses, identifying assumptions, and creating plans to test them is therefore another key skill.
Technical Skills
11 User Research
11 User Research
I understand how to balance generative user research with evaluative experiments in a continuous process throughout the product development lifecycle while minimising bias in that process
The best evidence comes from user research, and even if you have researchers on your team product managers need to understand how to do this research ourselves if we want to understand our customers.
12 Prioritisation
I understand how to develop a prioritisation framework as a tool for alignment with company goals within my team and with my stakeholders, when to use which of the many prioritisation tools out there, and how to clearly and effectively communicate those priorities.
It is critical for product managers to make sure that we are working on the most important thing at any given moment, balancing effort vs impact in alignment with company goals.
13 Delivery
I understand the pros and cons of Scrum, Kanban, etc and work together with my whole team on how we want to work together, how we document decisions and stories, etc. I use retrospectives and other tools to constantly iterate and test if there are better ways for us to do so.
Knowing what to build is just half the battle - we also need to know how to build it and how to best work together with our designers, engineers, etc in order to do that.
14 Product Marketing
I proactively make positioning and pricing part of the product process, think about how the market will find and buy my product, and work closely with Marketing on launch plans, copy, and comms plans.
In today’s crowded market, it’s important to know how to position and price your product for success, and work together with marketing to communicate new features, product launches, and why your product is right for the customer.
