The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager

by Product School

Project managers are most often confused with product managers. While there are many subtle differences, they can be summed up by saying that a project manager owns the schedule and helps ensure the team is on track to meet any deadlines. The project manager will often work with the product manager, and a product manager will provide input on the schedule.

Project managers are masters of schedules and Gantt charts, not of representing customers.

Beyond that, product managers commonly have an intersection of a technical background—not just engineering—such as industry expertise, and communication skills. The most common type of product manager is someone with an engineering/computer science background who became interested in business.

Product managers create a document that encompasses the entire planning phase, called a product requirements document (PRD), collecting all this planning information in one spot. A PRD contains the explanation for why you’re pursuing this opportunity, the scoped problem definition, the success metrics, and more. But you don’t create the PRD in isolation—you’ll work with your team, your boss, and other product stakeholders to make sure the opportunity and requirements are clear and the goals are achievable.

Design involves aspects like information architecture (In what order are things presented to the user?), wireframes (Where should the information live on the screen?), and pixels (How does it look?).

You will not be writing code for the product, or telling people what code to write. Your job is to stand aside, and let the people who are still engineers write the code. You help them however else you can, even if it’s getting them coffee, but don’t tell them what to do unless they ask for your help.

One of the first things a great product manager should do before even thinking about a product is to understand the company that makes it.

the products you build are a means to an end.

Of those who downloaded the app, how many complete a core task? How many customers do that task each day/week/month?

how do we pick the right goals and supporting success metrics to focus on?

self-perpetuation. This means your product has various loops that keep the customer engaged, and encourage other customers to get engaged. Your success metrics will be around how often people complete these loops.