Ten Traits Of Good Product Managers

Ten Traits of Good Product Managers Jeff Lash [email_address] How To Be A Good Product Manager – www.goodproductmanager.com Ask A Good Product Manager -- ask.goodproductmanager.com

What is a trait? Why do we need a dictionary when we have wireless? : Uploaded to flickr by ElektraCute flickr.com/photos/88903556@N00/119058236/

What is a trait?
Often called “soft skills”
Something you have (and everyone has)
Not binary
Malleable, to some extent
“ Just enough” is good; too much is bad
Good product managers have certain traits
Learn to exploit yours for fun and profit!

Why should we care about traits?
Traits make people who they are
Traits make people good or bad at certain things
Traits can put the “good” in “good product manager”
between the tangible and intangible: Uploaded to flickr by lil’bear flickr.com/photos/lilbear/253860293/

Learning about traits from the Wii

You need “just enough” of traits A little A lot “ Amount” of trait Effectiveness Pointy- haired boss Superstar

Ten Traits
Passion
Empathy
Humility
Self-awareness
Tenacity
Decisiveness
Innovativeness
Confidence
Focus
Persuasiveness

Passion
Bad product managers have indifference
Good product managers have passion
You need passion to build great products
You need passion to inspire others to build great products
Sparkly heart: Uploaded to flickr by *saxon* flickr.com/photos/88903556@N00/119058236/

Passionate about vacuums Source: www.innovation-creative.com/z4171_james_dyson.jpg

Does Passion Matter?
“ I think ‘inspiring passion’ matters a lot … There’s an art to creating a shared vision that people can adopt as their own, a vision that will motivate them even when you’re not around to keep the fires hot.” -- Bob Corrigan
www.productbeautiful.com/2008/04/02/does-passion-matter/

Empathy
Bad product managers have disdain
Good product managers have empathy
Empathize with customers in order fulfill their needs
Empathize with colleagues to create effective and high-performing teams
thinkgeek.com/tshirts/itdepartment/595d/zoom/

Source: www.spurgeon.org/~phil/posters.htm

Humility
Bad product managers have arrogance
Good product managers have humility
“ Credibility is the capital you trade with, start with humility. … Humility and honesty gain respect, as does asking for help and being reciprocal about sharing thanks for getting it.”
Source: “Surviving Product Management” by Louis Columbus pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/4/2/survivingPM

Self-awareness
Bad product managers have ignorance of their strengths and weaknesses
Good product managers have self-awareness
“ Self-awareness is being conscious of what you’re good at while acknowledging what you still have yet to learn. This includes admitting when you don’t have the answer and owning up to mistakes.”
Source: “ Self Awareness and the Effective Leader” by Chris Musselwhite www.inc.com/resources/leadership/articles/20071001/musselwhite.html

Humility vs. self-awareness
You can have humility and not self-awareness
You give credit to others for a successful project…
… yet you do not acknowledge that your incompetence nearly caused the project to fail
You can have self-awareness and not humility
You acknowledge that your incompetence nearly caused the project to fail
… yet you do not give credit to others for saving it and making it a success

Tenacity
Bad product managers have low tolerances for overcoming challenges
Good product managers have tenacity
“ have a wellspring of spiritual energy to call on to surmount any obstacle.” -- Stewart Butterfield (flickr)
Source: “ The Unexpurgated Stewart Butterfield” by Chris Musselwhite nextnet.typepad.com/the_next_net/2006/12/the-unexpurgate.html
Words to live by: Uploaded to flickr by Erik Charlton flickr.com/photos/erikcharlton/2039569768/

Decisiveness
Bad product managers have difficulty making decisions
Good product managers have decisiveness
Cold stone: Uploaded to flickr by tyger_lyllie flickr.com/photos/tyger_lyllie/202389797/

Decisiveness + decision-making
“ The best, most succinct definition I ever heard as to what my job as a product manager entailed was: ‘Your job is to make decisions.’”
Source: “The Exceptional Product Manager: What is the Right Stuff?” By Mark J. Tiedman pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/3/2/0503mjt
“ The choice to not make a decision — to do more research, run the numbers again, talk with more customers — is actually a decision!”
Source: “T he importance of decision-making” By Jeff Lash www.goodproductmanager.com/2006/12/21/the-importance-of-decision-making/

Innovativeness
Bad product managers have limited success approaching problems in new ways
Good product managers have innovativeness
Product management is inherently an innovation activity
Post Office Innovation: Uploaded to flickr by Kris Cohen flickr.com/photos/kcohen/509497624/

Confidence
Bad product managers have doubt and fear
Good product managers have confidence
Confidence in
Ideas
Abilities
Effectiveness
Decisions
Themselves
buff canoer: Uploaded to flickr by mahalie flickr.com/photos/mahalie/189147420/

Homer Simpson, Product Manager?
“ The Homer”
For only $82,000…
A bubble dome for the driver, and another for passengers.
An “extremely large beverage holder”
Car horns that play “La Cucaracha”
Shag carpeting
Chrome air scoop and spoiler
Tail fins
Straps and muzzles for small children
Thanks to Tom Grant for the reminder about this episode: blogs.forrester.com/product_management/2008/03/homer-simpson-p.html

Focus
Bad product managers have too many “agendas” to be effective
Good product managers have focus
It is better to do one thing well than to do a lot of things poorly
irony ; Uploaded to flickr by mrpattersonsir flickr.com/photos/mrpattersonsir/30325860/

Persuasiveness
Bad product managers have an inability to influence others
Good product managers have persuasiveness
If you can not persuade, everything else is irrelevant
3D Team Leadership Arrow Concept: Uploaded to flickr by lumaxart flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137729430/ More at thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

Using traits to your advantage
What traits do you not have enough of?
What traits do you have too much of?
Improving your effectiveness comes from awareness and understanding of your traits
When hiring, seek to understand traits of prospective product managers
Ask questions which will provide examples of how traits are (or are not) used on the job

What was not included here
Industry experience
Technical skills
Ability to write MRDs/PRDs
MBA
Knowledge of Agile
Etc…
“ Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill”
fastcompany.com/magazine/04/hiring.html

Other resources on the topic
Seven Traits of Successful Product Managers
michael.hightechproductmanagement.com/2006/12/seven_traits_of_successful_pro.html
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Product Managers
community.featureplan.com/community/2007/03/past_webinar_the_7_habits_of_h.php
How to be a Great Product Manager
onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/how-to-be-a-great-product-manager-boxed-set-with-bonus-features/

Thanks for listening! Questions / comments / feedback encouraged [email_address] Visit me at www.goodproductmanager.com

http://www.webproductblog.com	313
http://shivaskarma.wordpress.com	93
http://www.slideshare.net	54
http://stevemiles70.wordpress.com	16
http://honeypresentations.blogspot.com	11
http://a0.twimg.com	4
http://twitter.com	2
http://honeypresentations.blogspot.in	1

Ten Traits Of Good Product Managers

by Jeff Lash on Jul 10, 2008

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

8 Embeds 494

Statistics

Ten Traits Of Good Product Managers — Presentation Transcript