For many people (esp non-engineers) looking to pursue their passion for the tech industry, being a product manager seems like a natural career path. However, the profession is often misunderstood as there is really no standardized definition of the role. Software Engineers can take classes to learn to become programmers. There are few if any classes that anyone can take in most undergraduate institution to learn to become a “product manager.” Some of the tactical skills (such as modeling and design) are often buried in CS departments while higher level skills like marketing & strategy are part of business discipline. Successful product managers comes from all walks of life: ex-engineers, MBA’s, history majors, econ minors etc. There just doesnt seem like there is a template for what kind of people can be successful PM’s since the job definition is so fluid. I will simply attempt to shed some light on the job based on my experiences and hopefully help those that are considering taking on these roles some more data points.

Product Management, Product Marketing, or Program Management is a profession that dates back to less than 20 years ago. Asking around, most people seem to credit Microsoft and Bill Gates for creating the modern role of a product/program manager. Every company seem to have a different model and title scheme. Microsoft uses the Program Management-Product Management paradigm while most companies in the Valley (Yahoo, eBay, Google) uses the Product Management-Product Marketing model. Essentially the former works closer with engineering while the latter works closer with customers. Both shares in the responsibility of defining the functionalities of the product but the former (Program Manager @ Microsoft or Product Manager @ Yahoo) is mainly responsible modeling workflow and screenflow. The customer facing person is responsible for prioritizing new feature requests by quantifying customer needs, market sizes, and the competitive environment. They are also in charge of promoting adoption and increasing revenue of newly released as well as old products. To add more confusion, some companies have Product Planners (Microsoft) or Product Strategists that looks 2 generations ahead of the current product to discover new opportunities for major design changes or product categories.

Steve Shu led me to this blog that has a good overview of the softer skills (more MBA like) of product management. However I would like to add to the requirements/design part of the job description as its increasingly becoming more of a learned skilled. (Looking forward to increasing the # of PM type blogs!)

For the non-technical types, the tactical skills needed to be product managers are getting more and more rigorous. In order to reduce misunderstanding, “languages” which standardizes the way product management and engineering communicate on product functionalities are becoming very popular. The days of a MBA waxing poetically about a portal or a whiz kid engineer coding on the fly are gone for the sake of product quality and efficiency. SSADM & UML are the two most popular languages (there is wide variations within real world implementation though). Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology is an older more popular methodology which I prefer because its easier for a lay-man to understand. UML, Universal Modeling Language, on the other hand, is catching up quickly as its an object oriented methodology that matches closes with Java, C++, and other OO language frameworks. UML models can be used to generate code outlines for engineers to “fill in” thus often prefered for highly complex applications. I’ve attached a link that I used from time to time to brush up on the intricacies of these languages and other “skills” for being a product manager. Its a good overview of the “hard” aspects of the job (as oppose to soft people, leadership, marketing, and strategy aspects) The book list is acutaly really good for the advanced PM’s too.

Wharton’s OPIM 661: “Systems Analysis, Design, and Implementation” Home Page

So there you go, a quick view of the product management roles based on my experiences and conversation with employers and colleagues. By no means a guide on how to “become” one, just a window into the world of the “unsung” heroes of the valley.