Do you need technical skills for becoming a successful Product Manager?

A lot of students interact with me and 9 out 10 of ask me “If am I not an engineer, can I still pursue Product Management as a career?” The simple answer that I will give you is NO! The answer is no because not every product manager needs to have a strong technical skills but you need to have an inclination to learning about technology.

Before we move ahead, just a disclaimer! This is not a self-bragging post, it is my story for people who want to pursue a career in this field. So if you are someone who if thinking of pursuing a career in product management but you feel that technical skills are important, then read along.

I am a non-technical product manager with over 7 years of experience in product based companies where I have successfully built and shipped products. One important thing we need to understand is, there are different types of product managers which companies fail to understand. For example, there is a technical PM, Growth PM, Strategy PM and so on. So if you are non-technical and applying for a technical product manager position, that is a recipe for disaster because there will be an expectation mismatch.

Top things you need to know for becoming a successful non-technical product manager:

1. Challenges of technology in non-technical roles: Even if you are in a non-technical role, you need to have a strong inclination to understand technology. A product manager needs to know the working of the product they are building. It is important for a product manager to make informed decisions for the development team so if you work closely with the tech lead, that will take you a long way.
2. Business fundamentals: While working on a product, it is important to know and understand the product KPI’s and tie them along with the business objectives. A product manager, connects the business needs with the product features which will solve the business problems and bring in revenue. The idea is, to look at the overall vision of the product instead of one feature to achieve success.
3. Research: As lame as it sounds, research about your business, the product you are building, users, competitors and historical data will take you a long way. Each manager has different ways to judge decisions. Some want to look at competition, some want to know what our historical data says, ultimately it boils down to researching about “What” you are building and “Why” are you building it?
4. Relationships & networks: It is important to grow as a professional no matter what stage you are at in your career. It helps to keep your business relationships cordial to learn from them and ask for feedback. As managers, we might have a certain way of doing things but learning about new ways of implementation broadens our thinking. Network with people who are in similar fields and seek for their expertise, opinions and feedback.
5. Communication skills: You need to articulate what you are thinking to a developer, designer, business and other stakeholders, in a language that they understand. Give them what they want for example, communicate with the designer with wireframes, with the developer use a network diagram and with business stakeholders go with historical data of the feature performance. The more you speak their language, the more they will relate to you.

If you are someone who is looking at a career in Product Management but technical skills are holding you back, let’s connect!