Insights on Product Management

By Damon Chee

Discovery+ is a series of online industry panels which gives students the chance to interact with working professionals and learn about the careers they aspire to enter. These panels provide youths and working professionals with the opportunity to better understand industry trends, hear first-hand perspectives from industry professionals, and gain valuable advice on entering or navigating these industries. 

On 20 June 2023, Advisory hosted Discover+: Product Management, the 72nd edition of the Discovery+ series. Speakers on the panel included:

• Gaurav Tandon (Moderator), Director, Product (B2C), Circles.Life
• Andrew Gregovic, Independent Consultant
• Ramakrishnan TG, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google Pay
• Roland Tan, Assistant Director, GovTech Singapore

Attendees included students and working professionals with a desire to know what it entails to be a product manager, and how to best position themselves to enter this line of work. Below are some key points shared during the session:

What does it take for people to start their journey in product management?

There is no specific entry path required to start a career in product management. Some started as software engineers, while others pivoted over from operational roles. Since product management is a relatively new career specialisation, product managers originate from various industries and backgrounds, bringing with them relevant and transferable skill sets.

What are the critical skills required in product management?

One needs to be a good solver and a critical thinker. Another is having the skills to communicate your thoughts in a way that is palatable to the target audience. What is critical to your stakeholders and your users can often be very different.

Having good technical skills related to your domain will also be helpful, as the products you work on are typically linked to a specific domain, e.g., FinTech. This will make it easier to settle in and contribute quickly to your job.

What differentiates a great product manager from a good one?

One key differentiator that makes a good product manager, is the ability to look at what the end user actually wants. It is key to always refer back to the type of customer they are building the product for. Product managers should be able to quickly analyse data, identify what their customer needs are, and then develop the product roadmap accordingly.

A great product manager will have some hypotheses on what their customers want. They then test these hypotheses out by collecting user feedback and modifying the product accordingly. Having the mindset that they may not get it right the first time, product managers must review their work repeatedly to identify improvements to their product. They also check that the original goals of the team and key performance areas have been met, and to see if their product is providing the intended value. Making sure that the product is used as intended, is equally as important as getting it out.

Secondly, product managers should have a keen sense of marketing – how can we make sure that the value of the product is effectively communicated to the customer? How can we make a product that is user-friendly? And of course, what is our marketing data telling us about the needs of the user? How can we develop the product accordingly based on those insights?

Lastly, good teamwork is crucial, as product teams will often need to work cross-functionally to bring the product to life. For example, in most product teams, product managers often collaborate with software engineers and designers. Having the humility to learn from the perspectives of other teams will be crucial to enhancing the product's quality.

Not all product managers are strong in these listed skill sets, and they may need to enlist help from others to assist them. Know when to reach out to others for help to plug gaps in knowledge or skill sets.

How important is it for a product manager to have a technical background?

It depends on the type of product you are building. Deep technical knowledge is not crucial if you are building a generalist product, such as building one for your immediate family members or loved ones. Some product managers hold non-technical degrees such as psychology, communications, and economics.

However, domain knowledge is required if you are doing something technical. For example, creating a product in the field of EMV compliance, which is a payment standard for payment terminals and ATMs. Depending on the product field, the technical know-how can be hard to learn on your own, although not impossible. Nevertheless, most product managers either come from computer science backgrounds, or start as software developers and naturally progress to this role due to the skills they have accrued through working experience.

Ultimately, some technical knowledge will still be required to implement the product via UI, UX language proficiency, to effectively communicate with the software engineers, and to be able to make data-driven decisions.

How would you advise someone, such as a fresh college graduate or an experienced professional, to transition to a role in product management?

People generally start from a software developer role while others have related backgrounds such as a quality assurance (QA) engineer. Others who have studied finance or marketing usually become generalist product managers. You do not need to be a good software engineer to be a good product manager as the skill sets required for both roles are different. It is also not necessary to know how to code, but you do need to have a basic understanding of code in order to understand the technical architecture of the product. Without that knowledge, it will be hard to envision the end-product or communicate your needs to the developers.

A sense of clarity is also key as product managers need to convert ambiguity to reality. This is because solutions to the problem may not be obvious. Product managers need to identify these suspicions and test proof them to identify the right problems that need to be solved. These would then need to be communicated well to the team so that they can fix them and ensure that the product runs the way their customers want.

One also needs to have flexibility and adaptability as there is no fixed degree or course that prepares one to be a product manager. You experience it, refine what you have learnt through theory and trial and error, and soldier on.

For people who wish to have a career switch, how would you advise them to move from a generalist to a specialist role in product management?

The key to moving into a product management role would be to understand the processes or the inner workings of a product. It would be easier for those who have a background in QA or software engineering to move into that role as their roles require them to use this skill daily.

It is now easier to switch to a product management role than in the past, where the role used to be more strictly defined. As work becomes more cross-functional, the lines are starting to blur. Companies are increasingly looking at whether employees can complement and work well together to create the final product at work. However, to ensure organisational success, having a strong understanding of why something is done is still key as you are ultimately building something for someone to use.

Should I start working in a big or an early-stage company?

You do not have to wait till you graduate to start. Take up internships in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, application development, or Internet of Things, where you will be able to see how product management plays a role in these fields.

For smaller companies, you may have a more comprehensive experience as you will need to do what it takes to complete all the tasks in the shortest time possible. Its small size would quickly expose you to much of the product life cycle. For larger companies, roles in each department are likely to be more clearly defined. Regardless of the company size, you will still be defining some of the Product Requirements Document (PRD) processes and liaising with many departments.

Where do you think is the right starting ground for fresh players to consider entering?

Do both. Go to larger companies so that you know how operations should run, but also ensure some experience in smaller firms to gain breadth of exposure which larger ones will unlikely be able to afford. For example, getting in touch with customer service and collecting feedback about the product you built. These experiences can build empathy and help you to be cognisant of your actions on others. Specific to internships, it will be ideal to be acquainted with different departments where you learn skills specific to each team. This will help you become a better product manager.

How much is the role of a product manager client-facing?

It depends on your role. If you are building core platforms, your role will lean to the back-end.

However, if the product you build is only a few touchpoints away from the customer, such as working with organisations that deal with customers, it will be more client facing. There may be occasions where you will need to gather first-hand feedback about your product. A key part of being in a client facing product management role is handling consumer tickets, where you have to face your clients and diagnose their issues. Having good communication skills will be useful in those roles.

What final advice would you give to your fresh grad self?

If you are interested in product management, develop a growth mindset. Being a lifelong learner is key to becoming a good product manager as you will always encounter new things on the job. You may periodically ask yourself if your skills are adequate and if they are not, how do you improve them? Work to improve yourself and pick up new skills along the way.

Today is always better than tomorrow. If you want to do something, go for it. The earlier you do them, the earlier you know what is right for you. Things will work out eventually.