When I consult with organizations that are looking to identify internal candidates for PM roles, I often ask a few people to draw out a diagram of how information travels within the company—not a formal org chart, just an informal sketch of how people communicate with each other. Without fail, a few people continuously show up smack in the middle. These people are the information brokers, the connectors, the expansive thinkers who are actively seeking out new perspectives. They rarely fit the “traditional” profile of a product manager, and, in many cases, they are entirely nontechnical. But
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