Top 5 attributes of a successful product manager

Part and parcel of being a Product Manager is having an ego. There is a spotlight on what you are doing and you have to spend a lot of time being the ‘voice’ of the squad, product or even business.

However, the ego is also the first hurdle you have to overcome in order to be successful. You have to accept that you aren’t the expert in an awful lot of things and you have to be a sponge to understand everyone’s pain points and goals. If you don’t put your ego aside then you will build a product for you and not the consumer

Time after time everyone in a meeting is thinking the same thing but nobody wants to ask that question in case they look the fool.

As a Product Manager it is our job to understand the route of a strategy, idea, problem and you can’t do that without the context. Sometimes the person delivering the strategy may think everyone in the room is on the same page. It’s more than likely that if you’re not most people aren’t and they will thank you for being the one!

The most consistent aspects of a Product Manager’s role are prioritising and working with people. If prioritisation was easy or we had an endless amount of time to deliver perfect products then there wouldn’t be a need for Product Managers.

In trying to please everyone you will end up pleasing nobody but you need to keep people on side even when you may be delivering not so positive news.

No two people are the same and no two problems are the same. As a Product Manager you are working across multiple teams and scenarios working towards one consistent goal. A successful product. This means you have to be eager to learn and pick up new skills and experiences in multiple disciplines. Sometimes it may feel like you’re being pulled from pillar to post but it means there’s never a dull day.

At Sky Bet as a Product Manager you don’t need to be interested in sports or interested in Sports Betting but you do need to be passionate about what you do.

As the Product Manager you need to be the campaigner for your product you need to effectively tell the story and get pretty complex ideas across in a way that excites stakeholders from every area of the business.