When it comes to product management, though, the distinction between soft and hard skills can be particularly harmful. To put it bluntly, far too many people and organizations hire product managers based on hard skills that have precious little to do with the day-to-day work that those product managers will be expected to perform. I’ve seen fantastic product managers fail job interviews because they couldn’t whiteboard an algorithm or solve a code challenge, even if their day-to-day work would require them to do neither of these things.
