💫10 habits that will make you a GREAT product manager💫

Irina Haupt
2 replies
1. Prioritize customer needs. - Your customers know what they need and that makes them the driving force behind the development and success of your product. Listen to them! 2. Stay away from toxic behavior. Your own and others'. Period. 3. Consider frameworks, but don't follow them blindly. - Tools can give you structure and guidance, but one size does not fit all. Don't let them limit your success! 4. Set boundaries. - Sometimes people confuse product management with project and even program management. While all these roles may overlap, especially in smaller companies, your main responsibility as a product manager is to understand the customer needs and your product’s market. Remain flexible, but don't burn out trying to do all three jobs at once. 5. Never over-promise on your deliverables. - Don't promise anything you can't keep without burning out. You and your company will suffer. 6. Understand problems to prioritize feature requests. Ask "Why?" a billion times if that is what it takes for you to get to the bottom of a feature request. Your customers will thank you for it later. 7. Use data. - Your most crucial tool to comprehend your product and its future is data. Use it! 8. Don't underestimate scalability and maintainability. - A successful product should be scalable and flexible enough to adjust to changing market conditions and customer needs. Keep this in mind when developing your idea. 9. Check for new tools. - There are so many tools out there that can make your life and work easier. Always be open to trying something new, it might work for you. 10. Don't feel like an imposter. - Remember that we are all in the same boat navigating through challenging waters when it comes to product management. And you as the manager know best how to stay afloat! Can you think of any other great habits? 💫

Replies

Max Krasilov
Thanks for the tips, Irina! In addition: 1. Separate the stakeholder's/client's problems and feature requests. It was a really useful principle for me. When e.g. Sales asks me about some new feature, I always ask him in answer: - What's the problem with the current decision? Rate the problem from 1 to 10. - How often do you meet this problem? - Can we resolve it in another, easier way? 2. Segment everything. Revenue, Retention rate, Traffic. Segmentation is the #1 instrument in analytics and findings growth points.
Irina Haupt
@jungle_explorer Love your insights. 1.) Getting to the bottom of a problem before adjusting anything is key. People are often very clear on what they need, but not on what that may look like. So fully understanding the need can lead to so many different solutions - up to product to decide what makes most sense for the user and the company. Yay for 2.! Segment, segment, segment to properly analyze your data.