Characteristics That Every Successful Product Manager Possesses

It is often believed that the Product Manager is the CEO of the product. This statement amplifies their importance and the crucial role that they play right from the inception to the execution of the product.

Naturally, when a company is looking at a manager, they will have high expectations from the candidates. They would seek someone who is a natural leader, a strong orator, and an impactful monitor.

Thus, you can build your product manager resume to accentuate these characteristics to present yourself as a natural and perfect fit for the role. Are you wondering what these characteristics are? Let’s find out!

5 Highly Sought-After Qualities in a Product Manager

After going through successful product manager resume examples, here are the top qualities that you must highlight while proving your worth:

1. Research Skills

Launching your product, or even considering creating one for that matter, requires an extensive amount of market research. You will have to calculate your total addressable market, the revenue generation opportunities, and the lifecycle of the product. At the same time, you will also have to study your competitors and differentiate your product for the current market situation and future roadmap.

Thus, it goes without saying that you need to have mad research skills to make the cut as a product manager. Being ill-prepared at any stage of the product development could lead to the untimely demise of your product, and nobody would want that!

2. Emotional Intelligence

Someone who possesses emotional intelligence will be better at reading the room. As a result, they will be better at building rapport with everyone involved in the product development process. Whether it is the client or the employee, they can sense their emotion and play on them to steer them in their favor.

For instance, they should display a certain amount of empathy while collecting necessary information on the customer’s pain points. Thereafter, they will have to skillfully present their findings and the proposed solution to this issue to the stakeholders and business partners.

Following this, they will convey these to the product development team while also coordinating with other team leaders. During the course of product development, the product manager will constantly gauge the energy levels and emotional state of the team to ensure that they are in the best of their spirits to push the product to its much-needed finishing point.

Thus, one can see that while leadership is an essential feature for a product manager, they also have to invest emotionally to empathize with different parties involved in the product development and launch.

3. Ambition

Naturally, a product manager will have to be ambitious. While it is often believed that the role of the product manager is complete after the entire lifecycle of the product is over, the reality is quite different. Eventually, the product manager will conjure up an ancillary solution or an entirely new product, which will help the company diversify its operation and stay relevant in the market.

Thus, the product manager needs to be a visionary, right from the start. When they conceptualize a product in the first phase, they must also establish a broader vision to screen other possible products that may take off in the related field. Further, they should put their problem-solving skills so that they can disrupt the status quo and present product ideas and solutions that cannot be turned down!

Even though thinking big may sometimes not align with the feasibility, it allows the company to broaden its horizon and bounce off ideas depending on its feasibility. Further, after a product takes off and gains traction in the market, it will be a lot easier to work on other similar products. Once the company has the budget and the domain expertise, it would naturally be in a better position to work on the subsequent product or service.

4. Soft Skills

Communication is one of the core skills that a product manager must possess. It spans the entire process of product development, right from the inception stage until the execution and marketing of the product.

The product manager will be in constant touch with various individuals of different backgrounds, be it customers, stakeholders, engineers, or other team leaders. Communication across this spectrum has to be seamless, so you may have to break down technical matters into simpler bits or vice versa.

To ensure everyone lives up to their expectations, you need to get all stakeholders and participants on the same page and on your side of the conversation.

Therefore, taking a public speaking coaching course will help you become more confident in communication and public speaking. Through customized training at Thought-Leader, you can improve your communication skills.

In addition to verbal communication, visual communication is also crucial for the translation of ideas. Whether you are giving presentations or brainstorming with the product development team, try to incorporate visual elements to make the process more productive. Hence, the product manager must possess strong verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

5. Strategic Thinking

A product Manager is a leadership position where you may have to make snap-moment decisions that may change the direction of the product development process. Further, there may be modifications in the product concept depending on the inputs offered by the executives and tech teams. However, they will have to be weighed out before acting upon them, which is where it becomes crucial to strategize.

You may also have to review priority tasks, monitor their progress, and assign new priorities, which will require a fair amount of strategy. Similarly, there may be some features that you will have to include while dropping others, and during this, you will have to consider what is best for the product, which again is a strategic decision.

Finally, you will also be involved in the marketing and sales activities, and while your role will be relatively passive, your insights could also help the overall strategy.

Conclusion

Clearly, there is a lot that comes to play when you apply for the role of product manager. In addition to merely mentioning the above skills, you must also illustrate these qualities with fitting examples that demonstrate these characteristics. Including these in your resume will surely make your candidature stand out and get you a suitable job!