Crash Course from a 15 Year Vet on what Makes a Great vs. ‘Meh’ Product Manager

While the role of Product Manager has become more and more clear over the past decade, the definition of what makes a great PM is still a topic that people across tech enjoy debating — and oftentimes, have strong opinions on.

Bhaskar Roy, current Head of Product at PlayPhone, has worked in product for the past 15 years. He’s had a front row seat to the evolution of the role, and knows what separates good from great PMs — and how to become one.

Product Managers in 2000 vs. 2016

In the early stages of Bhaskar’s product career, working as a PM didn’t mean that you did anything at all similar to someone else in a PM role at another tech company. In some companies the role was more like the current Product Marketing Manager role, while at others there were engineers leading product development.

The difference in who worked in the role was different across companies too, and was divided into internal vs external facing. those that were external were more of the PMM type, and had an MBA or finance background. those that were internal facing were more likely to be engineers, or people with a more technical background. regardless, working on product then was very different from what it is today. product cycles were much, much longer, sometimes extending for more than a year. alpha and beta products were much more crisply defined, with testing structure and timelines to match. dogfooding products internally was the norm, after which an advisory council would finally get to see the product. customer input wasn’t near as frequent or valued as it is today, with constant customer development built into an iterative cycle.

What Makes a Great PM

A lot has changed, as Bhaskar has shifted what he looks for as he’s hired PMs over the past decade. He’s narrowed in on one key skill that he finds supremely valuable and indicative of a great PM — it’s the ability for the person to be strategic and have a long-term perspective, but flexible and able to execute in the short term. That means knowing what to do today — which small tasks to focus on — with an understanding of how those small actions fit into and impact the future path of the product.

To assess this in interviews, Bhaskar often asks potential hires about a product that they use today. It’s a fairly common question, that comes up in a lot of product interviews. But Bhaskar takes it one step further, asking the interviewee if they had to choose a totally different path for the product versus the one it’s currently on — what would that look like, and why?

“That is where I start seeing people stumble. Whereas the great guys will figure out “You know, this is how I think the product can evolve, because I see these cranks coming together. One year down the road, this could possibly happen, so potentially, that’s an opportunity.”

It’s a tough question — and reflects only one of the skills that bhaskar has found to be important across great PMs. It also shows the importance of staying up-to-date on news, trends, and having the ability to think about competitors and the evolution of a certain category. Thinking through all of the potential outcomes of a product and market is a difficult skill to master, one that requires being on top of a broad range of topics and news.

Why it Really Matters that You Can Code

After working with many PMs across many different companies and types of products, Bhaskar has developed a preference for PMs with a technical background. While he appreciates the skills and marketing mindset that non-technical PMs can bring to the table, the process that PMs from a technical background can bring to the table is one of their often uncited, important skills — how they approach problems

“…but I find that product managers who have a technical background tend to do well. They are more data oriented, they come to things with a very developer mindset, and what I mean by that is … Okay, if this is the problem, or this is something that I need to attack, what are the various scenarios. They think out of the box. They are able to think about solutions almost like they are debugging a problem, whether it be a growth problem or some other problem, they’ll go at it almost like an engineering mindset.”

Beyond that skill, communicating with engineers is a core component of a PMs role. Being fluent and credible in your understanding of that world is a difficult skill to build if you don’t come from a technical background. while it’s not an impossible skill to learn, Bhaskar’s preference is reflected in his belief that the marketing skills and mindset can be taught. While non-technical PMs can learn that side too, it’s often a much more difficult and longer process to get to the needed level of fluency.

What’s different — Product at a BigCo vs Small Startup?

Being great a Product Management is also different, depending on the type of company you’re at. With larger companies, there’s an existing product that you probably don’t want to mess up, in comparison to smaller companies where you’re building from scratch. When there’s much less defined for the product, it’s easier to grab a small piece and really dig deep. The cycle length can also vary drastically — small companies can go from idea to a launched feature in hours, while the same process can take months a a company of hundreds or thousands.

The biggest differences in how this plays out for PMs is in their interpersonal skills. The relationships that you need to be productive and have impact at a larger company are much more focused on developing relationships with the people across the supportive services that are in place across the company. This is in stark contrast to startups, where it’s much more about getting things done, across what would exist in different roles at a larger company — early PMs need to be ready and excited to take on anything, including things that wouldn’t fall under the job description of a PM at a larger company. Your ability to make decisions quickly can also weigh heavily on your potential to be successful at a smaller startup, matched to the shorter cycle time that those types of companies operate under.

The common advice around how to get started as a PM suggests learning the ropes at a large tech company, where there’s structure and education resources that can help you learn the fundamentals. I’ve found there’s a smaller group of people who suggest diving right in, and working at a small startup where you have actual ownership of at least a part of the product, and can see where and how your work has impact. Bhaskar has a more balanced perspective, and thinks that people have various strengths that lead them to be better suited to one big vs. small companies as a PM.

“I think people have to experience both to look at whether I am a big company person, and I like working in a big company and go through these processes, versus a small company person where it’s chaotic. Where do I really fit?”

There’s a ramping-up period for anyone starting at either type of company, even if you’ve been a PM before. A current PM on Bhaskar’s team was previously a PM at Apple. Even for him, adjusting to the differences in the role at a <200 person startup have been noticeable, and it took him a few months until he actually felt comfortable with the pace and nuanced differences in the new environment.

An article about being a great PM shared on Quibb last month mentioned a lot of the same perspectives that Bhaskar shared during our chat. The role of PM has finally started to solidify across the industry, but it’s interesting to consider the history to understand why it looks the way it does today. The most variance many people find, including Bhaskar, is based on size of company. If you’re early in your career, it’s an important part to keep in-mind.