Hint: If you disliked the headline of this blog because it’s style over substance, you might already be a good product manager. 

There are a thousand articles out there about how to be a good product manager. Some people argue the key is solid business acumen, others that it’s in-depth technical expertise or an unwavering focus on the customer. And all of these are important. 

But the best PMs I’ve worked with have a key set of skills that make them both a pleasure to work with and really good at their jobs. 

It’s important to realize that none of these traits are innate. They can (and should) be learned and practiced. 

What makes a great PM?

Confidence. Let’s start with a definition: “confident” does not mean being overbearing, pushing your opinion on the team, refusing to change your mind, or staying the course too long. That’s the opposite.

To me, “confident” means: 

• Having a data-backed opinion on whether a problem is worth solving, a feature worth building, an approach worth pursuing; being willing to express that opinion and argue it (in both good humour and good faith) with your peers and bosses; and being open to changing your mind. It takes many thoughts to make good products, so why limit them? The best lightbulb moments I’ve had have been when I’ve brainstormed the above questions with the team and someone says, “Why don’t we just….” If you’re married to the problem, not your particular solution, it’s easy to say “Let’s do that!”  

• Being willing to ask for what you need, like the time to do the experiment right, the resources to make the UI great instead of good, and the prioritization tradeoff to get the bigger issue started first vs. something less impactful. You’ll get told no 80% of the time as a PM, and that’s ok. If you don’t ask, you don’t get it, so keep asking. When we realized that the accountant experience we’d built into QuickBooks Sole Trader was looking great but wasn’t complete yet, we asked the PD team, which was slated to move to other priorities, to stay and finish it. And we got an extra couple of months, which got us where we needed to be. So good things can happen!  

• Acknowledging bad news when the data says you’re not on the right track and communicating the issue quickly along with your plan to fix it. Bad news is like a banana: it doesn’t get better with age. Get used to sharing lessons learned from missteps to help others avoid pitfalls. 

Curious. A good PM wants to know how things work at a deep level. That’s how you discover where the room for improvement is. Always remember, you work with incredibly smart people — and in fact, you’re one yourself or you wouldn’t have been hired — so if you don’t understand something, probably someone else at the table doesn’t either. PMs who ask the “dumb” question so that they and all the rest of us understand are heroes. 

Collaborative. The team is how you get things done. If there’s no team, you get no work done. So you need to nurture it, which means hearing — and acting on — their ideas and objections, crediting them publicly and often for their ideas, ensuring they get the credit for any big wins while you (solely) take the heat for misses, and being both clear about what the priorities are (and why) while being open to changes that make sense. Meetings are work, not a way to stop work. They’re your way of getting everyone on the same page and letting them know who’ll do what. Yes, run them well and cancel them if they’re not needed, but don’t shy away from them either. There’s no substitute for face-to-face discussion to eliminate misunderstandings. 

And on that note, spend the time to make your written documents as succinct as possible. It’s worth it. Managers don’t have a lot of time. Think of them as precocious 2-year-olds: use plain language, keep it short, and be clear what you want them to do and why (ie. approve your project, move your deadline, or promote you), and it’s a lot more likely they’ll do it. Also, don’t be married to templates: they’re a tool, not a straightjacket. I’ve gotten compliments for changing project reporting templates I didn’t like into something I felt was more clear and usable. 

Reliable & Accountable. There’s not really much to add to the title here. The people you work with like it when you do the things you say you’ll do (or proactively tell them why you won’t). It’s important to think end-to-end, consider all the systems you’ll need, all the teams that must be involved or informed, and all the steps the customer will go through to achieve their goals. I’ve seen a lot of teams caught by testing only their piece of the work, not the whole flow, and missing breakage or obvious fit-and-finish issues as a result. You all jointly own the customer experience. If you’re not gathering the troops to test the whole thing, who is? 

Enthusiastic. There’s a pinch of sales in product management, and excitement is infectious. Executives who see your passion about a project will entrust you with it, a team that sees it will be engaged and productive, and the people who see your demos will be keen to try it themselves. Yes, everyone has projects where you have to hunt a bit to find the thing about it that gets your blood pumping, and yes, sometimes you need to go for a beverage with the team and vent when processes are onerous or decisions don’t go your way. It’s going to happen, and it’s fine. But if you can find that spark, the work will be much more fun for everyone involved.  

It took me a long time to understand that, and to hone those traits into something I’m happy with, mostly through putting myself (as an introvert) into uncomfortable situations. Many of the traits I’m still working on. But if I can do it, so can you. Remember, it’s not who’s going to let you, it’s who’s going to stop you?