Question: What is the difference between a good product manager and a great product manager?
Answer from Greg Cohen of 280 Group: Many things break down to the 80/20 rule. This question gets to heart of what is in that remaining 20% that will move a good product manager to great. A product manager must be an expert in many things, including the customer, the product, the market, the competition, the technology, and how engineering develops products. All of this, to use a poker analogy, is the ante. You have to master these areas.
But “what separates the best from the rest” are the soft skills. Most important are leadership and influence. The product manager must sell their vision up down and across the organization including the executive team, their product team, sales and marketing. Selling a vision is never easy; it demands persistence. To have persistence, you have to believe in your vision and this requires passion. Lastly, product managers are pulled in many directions. The great ones maintain focus on the activities that will make an impact on their products success.
To summarize, there are five soft skills that separate good product managers from great: Leadership, influence, persistence, passion, and focus.
6 other answers so far ↓
Saeed Khan // May 14, 2010 at 7:58 am
Here’s my view on what it takes to be a GREAT product manager.
http://bit.ly/bW4Zeb
It’s from my series How to be a GREAT Product Manager.
Saeed
Roger L. Cauvin // May 14, 2010 at 8:13 am
I think the main difference is in gaining an understanding of the market. Ordinary product managers rely on experience (accretive learning) and training (transmissive learning). Great product managers are acquisitive and emergent learners. More on this topic in a future entry on my blog.
John Mansour // May 14, 2010 at 9:48 am
Good product managers have one or two comfort zones. Great product managers have many comfort zones that allow them to perform at a higher level regardless of what they’re doing.
Nishant Pradhan // Aug 16, 2010 at 11:06 pm
According to me a good product manger is one who:
1. Has a vision
2. Can optimize
Vision is the key. One should have a vision for the product, which is derived from the vision that he has for the customer.
The other key factor is optimization. Product manager, as Derek Britton in one of the posts http://ask.goodproductmanager.com/2010/07/29/how-can-i-establish-product-management-within-a-company/ had rightly indicated, has to deliver to different stakeholders – CEO, COO, CFO, Marketing head, customer support, sales head and more. Everyone has their own perspective and a vision as to how do they plan to serve the customer. The key is to manage the expectations of each stakeholder. Not to over deliver nor to under deliver. Balance is the key!
Tom Leung // Aug 29, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Great question. I elaborate on 4 qualities based on my product management experiences at startups, Microsoft, and Google here:
http://tinyurl.com/29a5tvw
Question: What is the difference between a good product manager and a great product manager? | Hani Abughazaleh Personal Site // Jul 27, 2012 at 1:08 pm
[...] Read the full article by Greg Cohen and others here. [...]
What do you think?