{"id":18038,"date":"2022-04-28T17:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T17:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?p=18038"},"modified":"2023-02-15T16:27:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T16:27:53","slug":"the-art-of-product-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/the-art-of-product-management\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Product Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In a previous newsletter<\/a>, I reflected on my career in product management and shared some lessons I\u2019d learned. One section, in particular, seemed to generate the most responses:<\/p>\r\n

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In product management, there\u2019s an art and a science. The \u201cart\u201d gets dismissed as soft skills. When PMs fail, it\u2019s usually because of \u201cThe Art.\u201d The most important thing you can do early in your career is grow these skills. Don\u2019t let them be dismissed as \u201csoft skills,\u201d don\u2019t get lured by the promise of tactics and techniques: they\u2019re essential, but the craft depends more on the art over the long term.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

I want to explore \u201cThe Art\u201d further today. My hope with this essay is that we can all begin to appreciate how critical these so-called soft skills\u2014or rather, \u201chuman skills\u201d\u2014are to product management.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

(I\u2019m certainly not the first to point this out. Folks like Petra Wille<\/a>, Kate Leto<\/a>, Teresa Torres<\/a>, and Lisa Zane<\/a> have explored this. It\u2019s just that all that other \u201cScience-y\u201d stuff\u2014the frameworks, models, tools, threads \ud83e\uddf5\ud83d\udc47, and methodologies\u2014suck up so much of the oxygen in the PM community.)<\/p>\r\n

Allow me to head off a response I\u2019m sure to receive: \u201cThis applies to anyone. None of this is specific to product managers.\u201d Yes, that\u2019s exactly right! And it\u2019s precisely why they\u2019re often overlooked and matter so much. Anyone will benefit from building these muscles. But they are crucial<\/em> for success in product management.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The skills that comprise \u201cThe Art\u201d primarily fall into six purpose areas. Let\u2019s call them \u201cThe Six C\u2019s:\u201d<\/p>\r\n

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  1. Communication:<\/strong> the ability to connect and share with other people<\/li>\r\n
  2. Collaboration:<\/strong> the ability to work with other people and support their ability to work with each other<\/li>\r\n
  3. Creativity:<\/strong> the ability to transcend the traditional and concoct something new<\/li>\r\n
  4. Critical thinking:<\/strong> the ability to analyze, evaluate, and form an objective judgment<\/li>\r\n
  5. Curiosity:<\/strong> the ability to form a strong desire to know what is unknown<\/li>\r\n
  6. Consciousness:<\/strong> the ability to develop the inner strength to navigate, cope, and grow<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\r\n

     <\/p>\r\n

    Communication<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n

    A first-time PM on my team once complained, \u201cI feel like all I do is talk to people, saying the same things over and over. When do I get to do real work?\u201d Communication\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0the work.<\/p>\r\n