Would you go to a doctor without a degree and training? Would you hire an architect to build your house, if that person has no training whatsoever? What do you think of the idea that these people could just “learn on the job”?
While ridiculous as it sounds, something very similar is happening all the time when people are hired to work as a #productmanager.
Off course most product managers are not saving anybody’s life like a doctor. But perhaps their work in building products is important enough that the “life of your business” depends on it..
Yet, we see this across #startups and big companies. When people without training and experience start building products, most start running into problems.
Sometimes there is no roadmap and prioritization framework. Sometimes the team is working hard, but customers are not thrilled with the output. Sometimes there are so many new things created, that its difficult to find what to use and when..
Sometimes the product is built without getting potential customers involved and then the teams struggle with sales. Sometime the PM is only working with engineering or sometimes they completely avoid engineering and only focus on marketing and selling.
This is a problem easy to create, but much harder to fix.
Also, because PMs need a variety of soft and hard skills. Soft skills: stakeholder management, presentation, persuasion, written and verbal communication, negotiation…
Hard skills: Domain knowledge, basics of product strategy, roadmap, GTM, some technical knowledge, trends in the industry, competition… And the list can go on depending on the type of product and level of product manager.
What can be done to fix this?