Good Product Manager vs Bad Product Manager

Do you know what a Product manager does. I am a product manager and I, for one, do not know it well enough at all. I did product management for six years while I was running my startups (none of which BTW were super successful). But, I did not know that I was doing product management at that time; I always introduced myself as the co founder who was looking at all things business at my startup.

I still vividly remember my first year in entrepreneurship where I used to struggle to define my work. It was like manufacturing work for myself (this situation, I would like to point out, was before we hit our product market fit - which alas never happened). I would, go to my office and would invariably, create a hypothesis like “Cashback seems to be working in India - Should we try that” and then it would be a roller coster ride for next few days/weeks/months and then I would come back square to the need to creating another hypothesis.

Now that, I am working in Product team of a large sized company (looking at the e-commerce product similar to that in my start-up), I am getting the same feeling again. Its me who gets to decide what I work upon - Now, this statement in itself is HUGE. It gives you a lot of power but it bestows even more responsibility onto you aka Spiderman).

So, ladies and gentleman, after being in a formal Product management role for 18 months, I get to actually realise that I was indeed doing product management for last 6 years. On paper, I knew it - but in spirit, it has just hit me. May be you felt goosebumps reading the last sentence. May be you did not. Do I care - Actually No - because I can still feel the goosebumps.

And, as serendipity would have it. I was reading Ben Horowitz’s “The Hard Thing about the Hard Things” this exact same moment. And would you believe, I was on this section “Good Product Managers vs Bad Product Managers”.

I, therefore, set out to understand that completely and dissected it for myself. And here, is the analysis:

What are the top five qualities of a Good Product manager:

They have a Solid Foundation: Solid Understanding of their product, market and competition

They define Product Path Clearly: They crisply define the targets, the “WHAT” as opposed to how and manage the delivery of “WHAT”. They define good features which can be executed with some strong execution after taking all the engineering, design and current product’s constraints.

They trust and empower people - They don’t manage other functions so that they all deliver on time. They create such environment for others to collaborate and succeed. They err on the side of clarity while communicating with all the teams.

They create collateral which are used by all functions on a regular basis rather than answering questions from departments all day long and then lamenting.

Take Responsibility: They have a high agency stand and take full responsibility for the success of the product. They never make any excuse: The fault is always theirs. They give directions formally and in writing and take full responsibility for all of their decisions.

They are Disciplined and are awesome at Time Management: Most importantly, they define their job and their success just like an entrepreneur. They send their status report on time every week.

And these are the top 5 qualities of a bad product manager:

Low Agency: They constantly want to be told what to do. Bad product managers voice their opinions verbally and lament that the “powers that be” won’t let it happen. Once bad product managers fail, they point out that they predicted they would fail. Quote Unquote They Don’t want to put their ass on line.

Bad at Communication: Bad product managers never even explain the obvious.

Not good at prioritisation: Bad product managers put out fires all day. Bad product managers complain that they spend all day answering questions for the sales force and are swamped.

Always trying to prove their worth: This is a big bane of the Product management roles where you seem to be the only one in the room with no tangible output. Bad Product managers are always trying to prove their worth.

Not able to create a strong product roadmap: Bad product managers focus the team on how many features competitors are building. They define good products that can’t be executed or let engineering build whatever they want (that is, solve the hardest problem).

So All in All - a good product Manager has a strong grasp over her product and market, is able to chalk out the future path for product, put the plan in action through empowering teams (giving them direction and not micromanaging them) and finally take the responsibility in case things don’t pan out well.

Check your Score

You can assess your or your peers’ efficacy as a product manager by grading yourself on all of the above 10 points.

For the Good Manager traits - Give yourself a 2 if that quality fits well, 1 if you do it intermittently else zero. For Bad Manager traits - Give yourself a 2 if you never do it, 1 if you intermittently do it and 0 if you always do it.

And you will end up with a score out of 20. My score is currently 9/20 and would now take this test monthly to see how well I am progressing.

Thanks for reading. As always, would love to get your feedback.