This article is a summary of his experience in Software Product Management over the past 20 years. He talked about the criteria for recruiting product managers and what they should possess.
Text/Marty Cagan, translated/Jiang tianwei
Find an outstanding product manager
"Where can I find an outstanding product manager ?" CEOs often ask me this question.
I always answer this question: a great product manager is in the company, but in other positions, it may be software engineers, user experience designers, and system engineers waiting for bole to explore. Whether you want to recruit product managers from within or outside the company, you must be clear about the characteristics of the appropriate candidates. In this chapter, I will list the characteristics of the product manager.
Personal Qualities and attitudes
Technologies can be learned, but quality is difficult to cultivate. Some qualities are essential for successful product managers.
There is such a group of people who have a kind of instinctive love for products and regard everything in their own lives as products, with the love and respect for excellent products. This enthusiasm is essential to product managers and is the motivation for them to overcome difficulties and improve their products day and night. This enthusiasm can infect team members and inspire everyone.
It is easy to identify such characteristics. You can ask the applicant to talk about their favorite products and their reasons, products in different fields and products he hates, and ask the other party if they have the opportunity, he plans to improve his favorite products. Enthusiasm is hard to disguise, and hypocrisy is easy to reveal.
The ideal product manager does not necessarily come from the target market of the product (which has both advantages and disadvantages), but must be integrated into the target market. This feature is particularly rare for high-tech enterprises that make mass products. We tend to understand users and the market from our own perspective. In fact, the experience, preferences, values, perception capabilities, endurance, and technical understanding of target users may be very different from those of us.
You can ask the candidate about the target market of the product and ask him to talk about how to change his mind. Measure the test taker's understanding about the target market. The most important thing is to check whether the target market is expected to be integrated into the target market or whether the target market is willing to change user habits.
Empathy is especially important for international products and products in specific regions. Although there are some similarities between different cultures, there are also many differences. Some differences do not matter for the product, while others do. You should check whether the applicant understands the target market and whether the two differences can be distinguished.
The human intelligence level cannot be replaced. Product Management requires insights and judgment, and therefore requires a keen mind. Diligence is of course necessary, but it is far from enough to work diligently.
Recruiting smart people is a difficult task, and the result depends largely on the recruitment capability and reliability. As the saying goes, "Things are clustered, and people are grouped. One way is to test the candidate's ability to solve the problem. Microsoft's commendable, in-depth, and effective interview is to examine the candidate's ability to solve the problem. Generally, one or more field experts conduct in-depth surveys on the candidate's question. The interviewer does not care whether the applicant knows the correct answer, but focuses on the candidate's ideas and methods to solve the problem (intelligence is superior to knowledge ). If the answer is correct, the interviewer will slightly adjust the question and ask the applicant how to cope with the new situation. Repeat this process until the applicant is forced to handle the problem that he does not know the answer and give a solution.
The obligations and efforts of each team role are different. Product managers shoulder the future and destiny of products and are never suitable for those who are greedy for ease of work. Even if you have mastered the time management and product management skills, the product manager still needs to invest a lot of energy into the product. Can a successful product manager have time to enjoy a leisurely home life? As long as you have enough experience, I believe it can be done. However, it is unrealistic to expect that you only work for forty hours a week and leave your work behind after work.
How much effort does a successful product manager need to make? On this issue, I have always been frank with the candidates, and the product management work cannot be measured by time, and I cannot pay too much. Most of the "Fire Fighters" temporarily found in emergencies are not suitable product managers.
In the long project cycle, the efforts and obligations of the product manager are not static. Some stages are relatively easy, while others are very tight. However, competent product managers will not change their attention and worries about products and their willingness to make efforts.
Among all product team members, product managers can best reflect the company and product values. Generally, the product manager does not directly manage team members and cannot ask others to execute commands. Therefore, the product manager must influence and persuade colleagues. This impact is based on mutual trust and respect and requires the product manager to be an upright person.
Product managers are the hubs between product teams, sales teams, and company executives. They often need to coordinate and handle various problems, such as early supply and meeting special requirements of major customers. Our colleagues are all aware of how product managers solve these problems.
It takes time to cultivate trust and respect. product managers can become true team leaders only by demonstrating their own qualities and abilities through work. If the product manager is not sincere to his colleagues and is selfish, a bowl of water is not smooth, it will inevitably affect the overall unity and work efficiency. Although product managers do not have to be proficient in everything, they should know what each member is best at, respect everyone's willingness to give full play to their work expertise, and fully trust everyone.
It is no longer easier to test a person's integrity than to test his or her intelligence. For those candidates with work experience, you can ask them how to deal with the pressure at work and ask more details.
Many believe that experience can lead to confidence. If we can build confidence by experience alone, why are many product managers who have worked for many years unconfident? On the contrary, college graduates who have just entered the society are often full of confidence (although this self-confidence usually stems from ignorance of their own circumstances ).
Self-confidence is an important quality. Company executives, product teams, and sales teams all need to see the confidence of product managers and be sure that the time, money, and effort they invest will not be wasted. Confident people are more convincing and easy to become leaders who are willing to follow.
Competent product managers treat themselves as product CEOs and are willing to take full responsibility for the final success or failure of the product, so they will never make excuses. Although he knew that the product should be listed on time to overcome many difficulties-difficult development, long development time, high cost, and complicated product, he knew that it was his responsibility to anticipate and solve these problems.
This is not to say that the product manager must be respectful and supervise everyone's work, but that when a problem occurs, he should take responsibility in a timely manner, and he should give everyone encouragement in a timely manner. Competent product managers know that although product implementation is inseparable from everyone's assistance, they should be responsible for their own product ideas.
Skills
Mastering some important skills is the key to successful product creation. I believe that as long as you have excellent personal qualities, all skills can be learned.
Many successful product managers are engineers, because planning products depends largely on understanding new technologies and how they are applied to solve related problems.
Excellent product managers do not need to invent or implement new technologies themselves, but must have the ability to understand and explore the application potential of technologies.
There are multiple ways to cultivate the ability to understand technology. You can take training courses, read related books and articles, consult programmers and architects, and participate in brainstorming by the development team.
Product managers should give priority to important issues. There is a lot of interference in the R & D process. Whether or not you can focus on solving key problems, restrain the impulse to constantly increase functions, and be independent from the influence of key figures or important customers depends on whether the product manager is sufficiently self-disciplined-not only to abide by the company's system, you must strictly require yourself.
Almost all products have less important features-these features have no effect on improving sales and user satisfaction. If you remove these features, the product will even be favored by more users because of its simplicity and ease of use. I suggest filtering out redundant functions, shortening the R & D time, reducing production costs, and allowing the product to go public earlier.
The world of email, instant messaging, and mobile phones is full of interference. You may come to work early in the morning, and work hard for a whole day. You can't even eat, drink, or get back home late at night, but find that you have not finished an important job in the end. Time is used to "fire" and handle "emergency" events.
Skillful and rapid division of important tasks and urgent tasks. Reasonable planning and scheduling of time are essential skills for product managers. If the product manager is unable to concentrate on the really important tasks, the product will inevitably become a task.
I know too many product managers who work 70 hours a week and are exhausted. They spent all their time and energy on their work, and their physical strength reached the limit. For them, the most terrible fact is that nothing can be done. Therefore, I intend to add time management and reasonable assignment to the training course. The product manager's time should be used to change the status quo, instead of waiting to attend meetings and reply to emails one by one. There are many things not worth doing.
Although the communication skills can be learned, it takes years to excel. Communication (both verbal and written) skills are essential skills for product managers. As mentioned above, product managers can only convince people and cannot suppress others by position.
Verbal skills can be tested during the interview. To test the verbal skills, you need to find another method. I often recommend that applicants carry text materials to prove their ability to express in writing, such as product planning documents that do not involve patents.
Note: If a candidate uses a non-native language with an accent or has a slight syntactic error, it does not mean that the communication skills are poor, as long as the words are clear, easy to understand, and persuasive, perfect pronunciation and grammar are not necessary.
The product manager will spend a lot of time writing emails, product instruction documents, planning books, and similar product analysis documents. Smart product managers do not waste time writing things that nobody looks at. Once you decide to write something, you have to do the best, say something, and convince people.
The written expression must be clear and concise, because colleagues (especially company executives) will evaluate the work of the product manager based on these texts. Sometimes text materials are the only basis for their judgment.
Another common form of communication is speech. For many people, it is not easy to give speeches to the audience, and it is even more difficult to express opinions effectively. Even so, speeches are common to product managers. The product manager must explain the connotation and importance of the product to executives, major customers, and sales teams in the shortest time.
We have all heard of bad speeches-slides are endless, and the speakers read entries in a rigid manner. The audience had to struggle to figure out the meaning of each chart, neither grasping the focus nor understanding the value.
In contrast, successful product managers try to reduce the number of pages on the slides. Their presentations are enthusiastic, focused, clear, data-filled, and fascinating. They will never time out (or even end early ). They prefer to ask questions from the audience. Even if they encounter questions that cannot be answered for the moment, they will try to explain their understanding to the audience and the audience. Jerry Weissman's speech winning: The art of storytelling is a great guide to improving the level of speech.
Business Skills
As a spokesman for the product team, the product manager should coordinate the work between the Team and the Finance Department, marketing department, sales team, and company executives. The concepts and terminology that these people can understand must be used.
I think product managers should have bilingual skills. This does not mean both Chinese and English. It means that product managers can discuss technology with programmers, as well as cost structure, marginal effect, market share, product positioning, and brand with management and marketing personnel.
For the above reason, many product managers graduated from business school. Enterprises need to know business people, so they hire an MBA. Although the MBA can also grow into an excellent product manager, in general, business skills are only one of the multiple skills required by the product manager and can be learned from outside the business school. For example, it is common for technicians to learn business skills through reading and training after entering the product management field.
Where can I find a product manager?
People with the above qualities and skills are rare, just as rare as excellent products. There are no more important positions than the product manager, so you must examine the candidates with strict standards.
There are many different opinions on recruiting product managers. Many companies think they only need people in the marketing department or people with an MBA, just like what the textbooks define as product managers. This may have been correct, but it is no doubt a paradox.
Many companies like to recruit MBA graduates from top business schools with a bachelor's degree in technology and industry experience. But don't forget that MBA courses do not involve product management. If you think that the current MBA graduates know how to manage products, it is a big mistake.
The most effective way to recruit is to find people with the potential of the above characteristics and train them into high-quality product managers through training courses and band-by-band. These people may be hiding inside the company. I know many excellent product managers who were programmers, user experience designers, customer service staff, technical support staff, marketing staff, and even target users. They use their experiences to further improve product management. For the same reason, company executives should listen to product management suggestions from employees in different positions. This is a valuable experience for executives.
Is industry experience important?
A friend recently asked me about a product manager candidate David. I used to work with David. My friend is the supervisor of a Volkswagen Network Service Company. He really likes David, but he has a question in his mind: "David is an expert in enterprise-level software products, is it suitable for companies like ours?"
I couldn't help but smile and told him that I had encountered a similar problem four years ago. At that time, David's current supervisor asked me: "This person is very good at system software. Can he do well in enterprise-level software ?"
In fact, David's education has nothing to do with system software, enterprise-level software, and public network services, and even has nothing to do with software technology. He was born from finance and is very smart. He is good at quickly entering new fields and understanding new technologies.
Many product managers are hired for their industry experience. I am often asked if my product manager must have field and industry experience. I think that for some products, professional knowledge is necessary, such as R & D of heart defibrillator, it is best to have a product manager who understands heart care. However, this is only an example, not a principle.
I even think that senior industry experience may be detrimental to the work of product managers, because people who have been engaged in a certain industry for a long time often fall into a common psychological trap: They think they know target customers, blind confidence. Product managers should get used to putting down their preferences. People with senior industry experience can do this, but they must make more efforts to maintain an open mind.
I am not saying that management products do not require industry knowledge. On the contrary, I think it is absolutely necessary to understand the domain knowledge of products (superficial understanding does not count. I believe that through positive learning, high-quality product managers can quickly familiarize themselves with new industries. Taking myself as an example, it takes only two or three months to get familiar with the new industry and develop product strategies with confidence.
I believe that developing enterprise-level software, system software, public network services, and consumer electronic products have different skill requirements. For example, enterprise-level software users are large enterprises (rather than hundreds of thousands of consumers), so there are different ways to understand requirements and define products; different types of products have different sales channels. If the product involves hardware devices, you must understand the impact of the process and progress. If you develop a public network service, you must know how to expand scale management and community management.
In general, I think there are about 80% of the skills and talents that product managers can use for different types of products.
I am not trying to belittle the value of experience, but I find that the most valuable experience is not industry knowledge or technology (these may be outdated ), rather, it is a process for building excellent products, the ability to lead product teams, the experience in coping with product expansion, the personal perception of themselves, and the ability to motivate themselves.
Technical expertise is closely related to industry knowledge, and the industry once attached great importance to the relationship between the two. Once, I saw an enterprise-level software company recruiting product managers asking applicants to have experience in developing Linux products. Indeed, the differences between different operating systems are great, but if the product manager cannot even process the impact of different operating systems on the product, the trouble of waiting for him will be far greater than lack of Linux knowledge.
Although the high-tech product industry requires fast learning of new technologies, it is more important to predict how to use technologies to solve problems reasonably. As technology develops rapidly, product managers must be good at quickly learning new technologies and solving new problems. When interviewing candidates, I don't care about the knowledge they have mastered, but only care about their learning ideas. For example, let them recall what knowledge they need to learn, how long they need to learn, and how to use it before developing products.
Age is not a problem
There are outstanding product managers in all ages. Why did a person stand out when he was 25 years old? First of all, the real popularity of the Internet is something that will happen after 1995. Therefore, people around the age of 25 today have as much experience as we have on the Internet. During the rise of the Internet, teenagers in their teens quickly learned technologies that adults do not understand. Second, although experience requires time to accumulate, other qualities, such as intelligence and enthusiasm for products, are irrelevant to age.
When I was working for Marc Andreessen, a young founder of Wangjing, I had to adapt to the fact that I was working for this young man in his early twenties. But when I found out that he was absorbing new technologies and persuading others, I soon forgot his age. People who have never met him will think that people with such business capabilities must be at least 40 years old.
Looking for outstanding product managers cannot be judged by age, gender, or race. I know that there are still many prejudices in the industry. For example, because of the importance of communication skills, we try to recruit applicants whose mother tongue is English.
I pointed out that this is not to condemn anyone, but to remind everyone that unintentional prejudice may lead us to miss out on outstanding product managers. Next time a college graduate comes to you with his product idea, you may have to hear it. His idea is probably the next Facebook.
Over the past 20 years, Marty Cagan has worked for many top-notch enterprises as a senior manager responsible for defining and developing products, including Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, AOL, and eBay. He has experienced the ups and downs of personal computers, the Internet, and e-commerce, and is committed to helping customers create creative products through writing, speaking, and training. To this end, he has written the book "golden RED: How to Create Products MERs Love" and created a Silicon Valley product group company (SVPG ). Prior to that, his last job was as senior vice president of eBay product management and design, responsible for planning products and services for global e-commerce websites.
This article is excerpted from the book revelation: creating your favorite product by Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press. This book introduces the practical experience and concepts of modern software (Internet) Product Management from the perspectives of personnel, processes, and products. We would like to thank the Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press and Mr. Marty Cagan for their authorization.
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