For a couple of years now, I’ve been utilizing a query in interviews with product managers the place I ask the candidate to pick one of many 4 forms of product supervisor.
The product supervisor sorts I say are the empath, the visionary, the builder, and the information pushed.
Within the three years of asking this query, I’ve seen a disturbing development, and I need to share it with you.
About 60% of interviewees cite The Empath as their product supervisor profile. For essentially the most half, people who find themselves drawn to product administration get pleasure from referring to others. It’s tremendous beneficial — getting in entrance of an offended consumer, or stoking enthusiasm in a convention speak, or feeling the ache of somebody troubleshooting, that takes braveness and ability.
People who find themselves good at empathy typically get forward of their careers as a result of they’re simple to work for and simple to forge relationships with. They’ve excessive EQ and are nice communicators.
Empathy is a beneficial ability in one other method, which is at its most simplistic, we prioritize product options based mostly on the urgency and significance, their impression — measured by the quantity of ache or pleasure a characteristic might deliver. So having empathy typically means having the ability to higher prioritize product options, as a result of Empaths perceive and hearken to customers.
On the alternative aspect of the spectrum is the Information Pushed PM— the opposite 40% of individuals I’ve interviewed. These of us don’t need to speak to customers, actually they satisfaction themselves on not doing that. They assume speaking to customers would skew their opinion and erode objectivity.
They take a look at a spreadsheet or an amplitude report and know that Phase A spends X, the TAM is 1 million individuals, and the characteristic the customers lack is Abc, so construct Abc. Or the NPS for this characteristic is the worst, let’s prioritize that one.
Powerhouse PMs with information expertise can cobble collectively metric upon metric, and are capable of see significant insights amidst noise. It’s kind of inspiring, it’s very beneficial, and it’s additionally a teachable ability. So it’s not shocking that there are lots of product managers who consider themselves as a Information Pushed PM or aspire to be one.
You’ll discover that 60+40 = 100, and we’re solely by means of two forms of product supervisor.
Zero p.c of interviewees say they’re builders. Stunning, as a result of individuals with strong nuts and bolts information of learn how to DO product administration will out-execute the concept individuals every single day of the week.
You possibly can take a brand new grad, give them a RICE framework, and they’ll make some strong product prioritization selections. Possibly nobody desires to self-identify because the builder, as a result of the logic of merely following a framework and outlined course of to ‘get the job finished’ sounds kind of boring?
I decide this reply aside in my observe up questions by asking some very focused issues, like:
- What number of prospects have you ever talked to this yr? Do you learn help instances or consumer boards?
- How typically do you seek the advice of market surveys?
- Might you inform me proper now the propensity to pay, retention fee, or variety of registrations your product had final week? What number of energetic customers do you’ve gotten? how worthwhile is your product?
They may say they’re a knowledge PM, but when they will’t inform me something in #3, they’re mendacity to themselves and to me. If they are saying they’re an empath however don’t speak to prospects — it’s the identical.
In the meantime, in the event that they’ve learn the Lean Startup, have a certification, spend their days tagging JIRA tickets, painstakingly created a product roadmap based mostly on consumer votes with out speaking to anybody, and have a spreadsheet with RICE columns per JIRA ticket… they’re a plain-Jane-boring-old-builder. Not that there’s something improper with that.
It’d curiosity you to know that out of all of the individuals who by no means picked this selection, I’d guess 1/4 of product managers are literally a builder. Not information pushed, not notably empathetic, however solidly following prescribed steps to do their jobs.
Sharp eyed readers will discover I stated there are 4 forms of product managers and up to now I’ve solely talked about three. There have additionally been precisely 0 instances of an individual saying they’re a Visionary PM. 0! Completely not even one!
I feel we will perceive why nobody says they’re a builder, however the lack of Visionaries surprises me. As a result of imagining a grand future, or clearly seeing a revolution in a market — that’s thrilling. That’s highly effective. That’s fast, tangible worth.
Having no less than one among visionary in your product group looks as if a no brainer as a result of if nothing else, that is the one that would give you our future hundred million greenback enterprise.
How might there be none of those? What offers?
I might rationalize this by saying, I simply don’t interview the appropriate individuals, however that appears too simple. What I’ve noticed is that there’s a lack of sources for product managers about the significance of imaginative and prescient or extra vital how to create one.
We practice product managers on empathy, on information evaluation, on Agile, Scrum, JIRA, Notion, Wiki and frameworks — builder expertise, numerous weblog posts, and conferences, and books — however there’s practically nothing about creating imaginative and prescient or market consciousness, or cultivating creativity as a product supervisor.
Proper now the highest product administration books are about Constructing, Constructing, Constructing, NOT constructing by having Empathy as a substitute, Constructing, Empathy… see what I imply?
And after I take into consideration myself, and I imply actually give it some thought — when was the final time I attempted to “blue ocean technique” and give you a fully new product?
Am I virtually at all times advocating for technical debt and incremental enchancment? What a sobering thought.
As a product chief, I’m an enormous proponent of the concept of group alchemy. We want all types of individuals. We want all types of product managers to type a profitable entire.
I practice and coach my groups to function as a collective, as a result of nobody is nice at all the pieces. So you’ll be able to see why I’m looking out for people who find themselves a Visionary PM or a Builder PM.
I additionally imagine within the fantastic complexity of the person. Individuals must be multi-faceted. Since we worth all 4 expertise, we have to study all 4 expertise, and we have to make use of and use all 4 expertise.
Then, and solely then, will we actually know which skillset is our strongest, or which to wield and when. I’ve zero curiosity in hammers, as a result of to a hammer, all the pieces is a nail.
Embrace the concept of all 4 forms of product supervisor.
- Discover the visionary inside your self and domesticate your creativity.
- Be happy with your builder expertise and personal them, as a result of they’re simply as vital as empathy and being information knowledgeable — extra so, even, regardless of being unglamorous.
- Take a category on information evaluation and study Excel expertise as a substitute of outsourcing it.
- Use your personal product and spot the place you’re feeling confused or aggravated. Speak to your customers.
Be self conscious. When it comes right down to what kind of product supervisor you might be, though we may be all of them, and we worth all of them, and we observe and study in every space… we in all probability don’t get pleasure from them equally.
What you do is who you might be — and it’s possible you’ll not even need to be a knowledge pushed. You could keep away from numbers like a plague. That’s okay.
Possibly there’s somebody on the market on the hunt for a builder or a visionary, and also you’re precisely the individual they need for his or her group.
