Slides Patrick Hoffman recently used in his discussion w/ mentees of The Product Mentor. Synopsis: Many people who are early in their PM career, or who are looking to break into Product Management, find themselves obsessing over gaining deep technical skills. Learn from an experienced Product Manager about why that’s the wrong thing to prioritize and what traits are more important to making your mark as a Product Manager. The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…Better Decisions. Better Products. Better Product People. Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community. http://TheProductMentor.com

1. technical enough is a real thing
other skills are more critical to your success
Core Product Management
Patrick T. Hoffman
@arcktip
The Product Mentor
September 2018

2. 2
Patrick T. Hoffman
Senior Product Manager | Enterprise
@Udacity
8+ years managing complex hardware and
software products at Social Bicycles (now Jump,
acquired by Uber), Superpedestrian, Udacity and
a few side SaaS startups
Patrick T. Hoffman
@arcktip
The Product Mentor
September 2018

3. WHAT PEOPLE THINK YOU NEED
Your path to Product Manager?
3
...
Degree in
Computer
Science or
related field
Degree in
Business or
related field
Learn to Code
Business
experience (e.g.
failed startup)
Product
Manager

4. THE ACCEPTED MODEL
Product Management Skills
4
Technology
Tech: understand the technology stack and most
importantly understand the level of effort to build

5. THE ACCEPTED MODEL
Product Management Skills
5
Technology
User
Experience
Tech: understand the technology stack and most
importantly understand the level of effort to build
UX: be the voice of the user, test the product, talk to users
and get their feedback first hand

6. THE ACCEPTED MODEL
Product Management Skills
6
Technology
User
Experience
Business
Tech: understand the technology stack and most
importantly understand the level of effort to build
UX: be the voice of the user, test the product, talk to users
and get their feedback first hand
Business: optimize a product to achieve the business
goals while maximising return on investment
“A good product manager must be experienced
in at least one, passionate about all three, and
conversant with practitioners in all.”
- Martin Eriksson, Co-Founder of Mind the Product
Hybrid model and quote from Eriksson’s post “What exactly is a Product Manager” (2011)

7. THE ACCEPTED MODEL, QUESTIONED
Product Management Skills
7
Technology
User
Experience
Business
Some things are missing…

8. A NEW CONNECTIVE SKILL MODEL
Product Management Skills
8
...Core PM Framework introduced by Matt LeMay in Product Management in Practice (2018)
Technology
User
Experience
Business
Communication Organization
Research Execution

9. CORE TO GREAT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
The Connective Skills
9
Organization
Research Execution
Communication: “Clarity over comfort”
Real World Scenario:
Your team sets your roadmap for the next 1212 months at
the end of December. You reaffirm it at the end of January.
A feature set on this roadmap requires working with
another team for 2-3 months. You want to land the feature
set by October but the other team is not available until July.
You reaffirm commitment to this feature in May.
In mid-July, after p.o.c. done you’re speaking with your
head of business and your head of engineering. Your head
of business makes an offhand comment questioning the
value of the feature suggesting it shouldn’t be done.
Communication
What do you do as a Product Manager?

10. CORE TO GREAT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
The Connective Skills
10
Research Execution
Organization: “Change the rules, don’t break the rules”
Real World Scenario:
You’ve spent the last decade working with highly
structured teams of engineers and designers, across
different companies making use of agile methods, to
deliver product in iterations.
You switch companies. You go from working with a team
of 20 engineers and designers to working with a team of 3
engineers and no designers. The team has a set way of
doing things and has been productive. You know the team
plans to quadruple in size within the year.
Communication Organization
What do you do as a Product Manager?

11. CORE TO GREAT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
The Connective Skills
11
Organization
Execution
Research: “Live in your user’s reality”
Real World Scenario 1:
You join an ecommerce company with a customer base in
the millions. You need to understand your users.
Real World Scenario 2:
You join a direct to consumer business in order to build
out their Enterprise product offering. You need to
understand your users.
Real World Scenario 3:
You decide to start a SaaS company to make it easier for
small businesses (e.g. restaurants) to operate in the digital
age. You need to understand your users.
Communication
Research
What do you do as a Product Manager?

12. CORE TO GREAT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
The Connective Skills
12
Organization
Execution
Execution: “No work beneath, no work above”
Real World Scenario:
You’re fresh out of graduate school and you get hired for
your first job as a Product Manager at a company selling
software solutions to midsize businesses.
Your day to day is mostly working with your team to
understand the needs of your users and to make sure
your product stays delightful and relevant to them.
9 months in, your CEO asks you to be on site to oversee
and guide the acquisition of a mission-critical partner.
Communication
Research
What do you do as a Product Manager?

13. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO TO BE GREAT
Your path to Product Manager
13
● Always be learning
● Learn how to seek the truth and find it for the current case
● Learn to navigate ambiguity
● Learn to keep strong opinions, weakly held
● Learn to communicate the same idea to different audiences
● Learn to solve organizational problems at different stages and scales
● Stay invested in your user’s reality
● Do whatever it takes (ethically) to make your team, your product, your company successful
● Keep learning, keep growing as a Product Manager
The Product Mentor
September 2018