So when looking for a product manager, I think there are various things people look at. A lot of people look at domain expertise, functional expertise but I focus a lot on soft skills. When I say soft skills – things like, does the person, first of all, he has to be data driven, more then being data driven, having the ability to operate in ambiguity. We all know that the best way to make decisions is by diving deep into data and slicing it and dicing it and finding patterns in data and using that to drive decision-making. The common example I often give people is – when we were younger and during our education days there was a very precise problem statement and a very precise answer to it. We all do our math and arrive at that precise.
answer. As we grow up in our life the answers become more and more subjective and there is no right answer. As you move into a product role, even the question or problem statement or customer need is hard to articulate. In fact in the industry we say that if you are able to articulate the problem statement half the problem is solved. So I try to look at people who can operate and can make correct decisions repeatedly in this ambiguous environment.

I also look at – the other skill is – can they influence without having control. So a lot of product managers are often individual contributors – the engineering team, finance team, the operations team, legal team, don’t necessarily report into the product manager. So can he get everyone aligned, can he get everyone marching in one direction towards the strategy and vision. Can he do this without having explicit control, without the hierarchy and direct reporting can he drive influence within the company. That’s another skill we look at. Other than this I would say the last thing is, a lot of people think that product manager is a very glamorous role. Google often says it’s a mini CEO type profile but I always say that a product manager is not only a mini CEO but also the janitor of the company, of the product. He has to truly own the product, he has to be comfortable doing everything to make the product successful.

Often when you are trying to align resources a lot of people don’t want to do mundane and repetitive work and a product manager has to ensure that the ball never gets dropped. So wherever it is necessary for him to pick the ball he should be willing to do. I have seen product managers themselves in the initial stages of the company themselves delivering packages in an e-commerce company, themselves uploading pictures on the website and making information more rich for the customer. One has to be comfortable doing everything from operations to customer support to of course sitting with large CEOs and driving negotiations and discussing business models and making strategic decisions. A product manager should be comfortable with the entire spectrum of activities to make a product successful.