Tools/ Skillset to become a Product Manager

Nowadays Product Managers come from different background including non-technical and non MBA background. And the requirements from product companies also greatly vary. It is very difficult to narrow down the exact product manager skillset. So, in this article we are going to broadly classify the Skillsets based on two types of product managers – Technical Product Manager & Non-technical Product Manager and we will try to give an unbiased answer for them.

Tools/ Skillsets to become a Technical Product Manager

As the name suggests, Technical Product Managers have a strong engineering background. They usually come from computer science background. They are subject matter experts in a particular technical domain.

Typical JD –Below given is the Job description of Paypal that requires PMs with core card compliance. JD will explicitly mention the expertise that is needed for the job

“This job is critical to manage compliance for Paypal products and services with scheme requirements and regulatory rules in the countries where Paypal operates. Without this headcount Paypal will face fines, business disruption, transaction declines, brand and other operational risk. Meet our team The Payments product team is seeking an exceptional Production Manager-3 – Network & Regulatory card compliance to build world class card acceptance solutions to strengthen our core capabilities”

Companies which hire Technical PM(not exhaustive) – Paypal, Siemens, GE Healthcare, VISA, Apple Nike, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, etc.

Experience required – Strong core engineering experience in a particular domain is mandatory for these jobs. Sometimes people from non-engineering background also end up as Technical Product managers based on their domain expertise.

Interaction – Technical Product manager’s interaction with their engineering teams is way more than their interaction with the customers.

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Tools/ Skillsets to become a Non-Technical Product Manager

Different companies require their Non-Technical Product managers to possess different skillsets. But all of them have one thing in common which is “Structured product thinking”.

Typical JD –Below given is the job description of Uber. You can notice that the wordings are very generic.

“As a Product Manager on the Merchant team, your job is to lead a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, data science, product operations, and regional operations. You will be part of the team that owns the merchant platform and restaurant tech, where you will play an integral role in building some of the most exciting and simple-to-use features for our merchants to make their experience with UberEats seamless.

• Building a scalable merchant platform and technology that considers future growth needs across Ads, New Verticals (Groceries, Alcohol, etc.,) and Direct business.
• Foster merchants’ best version by helping them be the best version of themselves by facilitating learning from other’s successes and growing through insights for their business.
• Expanding the margin pie by helping our merchants be more profitable by looking beyond the marketplace, building merchant trust, and eventually, love.”

Companies which hire Non-Technical PM (not exhaustive) – Swiggy, Uber, Amazon, Spotify, Flipkart, etc.

Skillsets needed to be a Non-Technical PM – Below given are the major traits that would be expected from a non-technical product manager

1. Structured thinking
2. Analytical mindset
3. Experience in data analysis
4. Excellent Stakeholder management skills
5. Excellent communication skills
6. Unbiased decision making skills

Tools that will help u in your role as a Non – Technical Product manager

1. Figma( for basic wire framing & expressing product ideas)
2. SQL – (don’t have to be an expert on it, but should be comfortable querying the data from database)
3. The good old MS Excel & Power point.

Interaction – Non technical product managers are customer facing. Their interaction with technical teams will be with respect to giving product requirements and checking feature implementation feasibility.

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