Key Traits of Successful Product Management

Product Managers: Stop trying to prove you’re the most technical person in the room. Do this instead. Listen - you weren’t hired to write code. You were hired to lead. The fastest way to dilute your impact is by trying to match your engineers on technical depth instead of leaning into your actual superpower: clarity, strategy, and customer obsession. Here’s what actually moves the needle: 1. Know your customer inside and out. Not just their problems—but their aspirations, fears, and daily tradeoffs. 2. Craft a compelling narrative and strategy. A vision without clarity is just noise. Great PMs align people through story and focus. 3. Understand enough technical depth to earn respect, not to build the thing yourself. Your job is to ask the right questions, not answer all of them. 4. Be the decision-making engine. Create a space where smart people make smart decisions—fast. And when they are stuck, you make the decision for them. 5. Ask the “dumb” question. “Can you translate that into plain English?” is often the bravest, most powerful thing in the room. The best product managers I know don’t try to be engineers. They respect the craft—and build trust by doing what engineers need most: clearing ambiguity and setting a compelling direction. Remember: if you’re feeling the pressure to out-tech the tech team, stop. Instead, manage the product. Shape the story. Lead the room.

As head of our product organization at Chase, I often think about how and what we’re delivering to customers, but I recently reflected on the vital role of product managers. While some may view it as merely administrative, in my opinion this couldn't be further from the truth. Product managers are the driving force behind strategy and exceptional experiences, whether for external customers or internal users. Our role demands a deep connection to both the product and its users. Three essential qualities we all have: Customer Obsession: Go beyond empathy by diving into data and insights to understand user behavior, pain points, and opportunities. Decisions should be data-driven, ensuring the product evolves with user needs. Strategic Leadership: Product managers must define and drive the product vision, setting strategies that align with company goals. This involves fostering alignment across cross-functional teams and building strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure everyone is working toward a shared vision. Accountability: Own the outcomes, whether good or bad. Exceptional product managers embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and continuously iterate to improve. They step into gray areas, connecting the dots to drive cohesive and successful outcomes. This role is strategic and high-impact, requiring us to lead with intention, push boundaries, and always advocate for the user. #productmanagers #productdevelopment

Some roles don’t give you the luxury of "growing into" leadership—Product Management is one of them. As a Product Manager (PM), you step into leadership from day one, even before holding a formal title. It’s not just about managing tasks—it’s about guiding teams, shaping vision, and driving impact. Leadership in PM is about influence, empathy, and making decisions that serve the customer, the business and the team. Some of the qualities that make PMs truly great aren't always measurable, but they have a powerful impact on their success. They 🙏 Embody Humility 🚀 Create Space for Innovation by focusing on the customer 💙 Lead with Empathy - Inspire through empathy, not authority. 🔑 Build Trust & Be Transparent with authenticity and openness. 💪 Empower Your Team with autonomy to solve problems. 💡 Make Timely Decisions based on data, clarity, and customer value. 🔄 Embrace Change & Learn Continuously from feedback and failure. 🧭 Keep the Big Picture in Focus to gain alignment with the broader vision. 👂Listen to Understand by truly grasping your customers’ and team’s needs. 🗣️ Communicate Clearly to drive clarity on the "why" behind your decisions. ✨ Lead by Example by demonstrating the behaviors you expect from your team. Leadership in PM isn’t about titles—it’s about how you show up every day. Great PMs lead with heart, clarity, and a relentless focus on delivering impact. 💥 What leadership qualities do you value most in a PM? 💬👇

3 traits that the best product managers have that most PM interviews miss completely: 1. Curiosity The best PMs can't help but tinker. They're constantly exploring and building things - not because they have to, but because they're genuinely fascinated by how things work. So consider asking: "What have you built or explored recently just because you were curious? What do you tinker with in your free time?" 2. Craft The best PMs obsess over quality. They sweat the small details and push for excellence because anything less would feel wrong. So consider asking: "Tell me about when you were obsessed about a product detail that others may have missed." 3. Customer The best PMs prioritize what's best for customers and their company over themselves and their immediate team. So consider asking: "Tell me about when you had to make a tough call between customer, company, and team needs." Look for these 3Cs when interviewing PMs and I promise you'll hire a great one.

In 2017, David Gasca, Director of Product Management at Google, shared his thoughts on the four layers that constitute a good PM. Ranked by importance, these were Mindset, Getting Things Done, Team Leadership, and Product Expertise. Mindset: Both in startups and large companies, the mindset of decision-makers can make or break a product. Customer obsession combined with empathy, skepticism when needed, and an ability to lead a team towards a shared vision is essential for creating a great product. Getting Things Done: PMs have to work across the development pipeline and the product to accomplish tasks. The ability to break down problems, create a roadmap supported by credible evidence, prioritize features and issues, and communicate with stakeholders from multiple disciplines (Design, Engineering, Business Development, C-Suite) is crucial for ensuring smooth product development from start to finish. Team Leadership: The role of a Product Manager is comparable to that of a conductor in an orchestra. The conductor ensures that everyone is playing the right tune by making sure everyone knows their role, is on the same page with what is going on, and gets whatever they need to be effective. Product Expertise: A Product Manager must be able to wear multiple hats and possess at least a foundational level of expertise in various facets of the product. This can involve participating in Architecture Design with Software Engineers, conducting UI Reviews with Design Teams, strategizing with Business Teams, or setting KPIs/Metrics with Growth Teams. It's always fantastic to gain insight into the advice from some of the best in the industry!

What does it take to be a great product manager, regardless of product type? It all starts with the raw materials. Great PMs can be molded, but only if we start with the right ingredients. However, without each of these critical skills - all of which are more ingrained than teachable - it's a lost cause. So what does it take? EMPATHY Are humans their center of gravity? Can they truly and authentically inhabit another human being's experience in the world, and can they connect with the emotional elements? Can they truly feel the joys, the struggles, and use that to inform their approach? This applies not just to customers, but to team members. CURIOSITY Are they students of the world? Are they constantly observing everything that's happening around them, and asking how it could be better? Are they just as skilled at unlearning something as learning it? Curious individuals can expound on the products they use and love, with savvy insights on why those products are powerful. ANALYTICS Our world is shockingly complex. There are so many layers, so many variables. They should have a knack for decomposing complex issues into their component parts, and in doing so providing simplified and understandable models of a messy reality. This is not just the key to high impact decision making, but to communicating a clear vision. They should also be able to synthesize the component parts of the problem back into a whole product solution. COLLABORATION Product managers are not creators, they are editors. All the answers we need exist around us, in the hearts and minds of our customers and team members. We just have to discover them, and edit them into something that makes sense to the world. To do that in a genuine, authentic way requires a healthy dose of humility. It also requires people to truly, deeply believe in the one team philosophy, that they are effectively useless without the team. Listen for "we." GRIT How many times can they take a punch before staying down? The only answer is "as many as it takes to get to where we need to go." These individuals are unbreakable -- they won't win every battle (they lose often), but they never lose the war. They are fervent optimists, convinced of a better future, but brutal pragmatists, embracing the harsh reality of their current moment. They are not naive. They live the Stockdale Paradox. When you ask them about failure and struggle, they will have plenty of stories, and embrace each without bitterness or regret, because it was just one punch they took on the way to where they wanted to get. EMOTIONAL MATURITY Feelings are not easily hurt and does not expect special consideration. Is not a chronic ‘fault-finder’ and is not prone to envy or jealousy. Does not rush to blame others. Not threatened when others disagree with them. Non-judgmental.