Success Mantra for Product Managers

Job of a product manager is strategic in nature where quality is of paramount importance and at the same time it (quality) is difficult judge on shorter duration. Product Managers run marathon and not sprint, it is important for him/ her to be focused for longer duration and deliver quality output consistently, a challenge I guess many struggle to deal with. That's where you see these Jumping Jack product managers who habitually stays for less than 18 to 24 months on a job (2 or more jobs)  or who have never experienced a complete life cycle of the product.

Is it that difficult to stay for 24 months, or experience a complete product life cycle. Wait and see what happened to the decisions that you made last year or in initial stages of product development. What happened to those critical decisions you made in growth phase of your product and how long did your product stayed in maturity stage. Product Managers who do not stay long, would never ever be able to experience these situations.

Product Managers, learn to listen

"To Listen" is very imported for a product manager. Listening is a skill, and for a product manager this skill is on the top of the skills list that a product professional must acquire. Effectiveness of core deliverable like identifying opportunities, writing business plan, collection requirements, PRDs, and release prioritization largely depends upon how well the product manager has mastered the skill of listening.

The purpose of listening for many as I observe is to reply. Start replying, even while the speaker continues to put his point or frame up reply while speaker is talking and start speaking as soon as he is done.

One of the major role a product manager (read expectations from product manager) is to consolidate inputs from various sources (read requirement gathering), compile them and take decision that would best benefit product & business strategy. It is hence imperative that product manager masters this skill of listening to its best.