How to Improve a Product Management Skill Set?

Product management is an area that requires constant developing, improving and optimizing professional skills and knowledge.

If you do not have time and efforts to understand and comprehend something today, then tomorrow you can become a bad manager.

This is the rule and such is life.

Any project manager care about how to improve his/her skills and be a better PM.

Cleverpm.com highlights some very specific areas that any product manager can assess and decide what next steps they want to take to become a real PM rock star.

Here’re the key ideas from the blog post:

If you are not technical enough…

Learn to Code!

There is a common point of view that a product manager needs to be technical. Any PM should be able to rely on tech teams to educate his/her on specific issues and to do the heavy lifting.

When users complain about a problem and you’re the only one who can solve it, you start to build real empathy for the challenges that your development and testing teams face on a daily basis.

Actually, there are so many resources that you can use to gain some basic understanding of technology and coding.

Some of them are free, some cost money, but the point is to try to build something from the ground up.

If you are technical enough…

Study psychology!

Nowadays you may find many programs online or in person that provide actual leadership training. Books and articles are also a great solution.

Neuro-linguistic programming, negotiation skills, facilitation and coordination, running effective meetings – all these topics and many more will be helpful for any PM.

Tons of possible options to broaden your horizons and expand your abilities as a PM lie in the broad spectrum between hard tech and soft people skills.

Do not limit yourself to the obvious options that most people focus on!