Product Management in Practice, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. The CORE Skills of Product Management

Given the vast variability of product management roles between teams and organizations, the actual skills of product management can prove very hard to pin down. This often results in product management being described as a mishmash of the skills used in other, easier-to-define roles. A little bit of coding, a pinch of business acumen, some user experience design, and—voilá!—you’re a product manager.

As we discuss in this chapter, the connective work of product management requires its own set of skills. Defining this set of skills helps carve out a place for product management as a unique and valuable role and provides much-needed day-to-day guidance for how product managers can excel at their work.

The Hybrid Model: UX/Tech/Business

Insofar as there is a commonly accepted visual representation of product management, it is a three-way Venn diagram (Figure 2-1) that positions product management at the intersection of business, tech, and UX (user experience).

I have seen a number of variations on this—sometimes UX is replaced with design or people. Sometimes business is replaced with statistics or finance. I recently saw a job listing from a major bank that asked for candidates who are proficient in “business, technology, and human”—which in no way sounds like a job listing written by and for sentient robots.

Figure 2-1. The hybrid ...