Hi there and a warm welcome to the new members 👋

I’m back from a long writing break, so today I have something special for you: A Learning Path to help aspiring and growing Product Managers break into the role and level up. Scroll down to see the visual Learning Path.

Happy reading and learning!

How to become a Product Manager

I frequently receive the question “How can I become a Product Manager?” This question can be tackled from two perspectives:

• The career path perspective: What career steps should I take to get a Product Manager role?
• The knowledge/skill perspective: What knowledge and skills should I develop as a Product Manager?

While they are related, today we focus on the second perspective: The concepts and skills Product Managers should be familiar with and master. The purpose of this learning path is to help you position yourself and identify areas for growth.

Fundamentals

You might be familiar with this ‘Venn diagram of Product Management’, placing it at the intersection of Technology, Business and the Customer/User Experience.

Expanding on those, there are five areas Product Managers should be familiar with:

1. (Web) Technology: How the internet works/HTTP, Application Architecture, Frontend/Backend Stack, Development Process. Replace this with the respective technologies relevant to your product, e.g. VR, ML, Native Apps…
2. Design: Design Thinking, UX, UI, Prototyping, Problem/Solution Space
3. Business: Business Model, Revenue/Cost Structure, Financial KPIs, Pricing
4. Engineering/Delivery Management: Scrum, Kanban, Backlogs, Estimations
5. Data Analytics: Data queries, SQL, Sample size, Statistical significance, Data visualisation

You’ll find a more detailed breakdown of these fundamentals in the visual learning path below. Notice that each of these areas offers a career path in itself. It’s not feasible to be an expert at several of these — Product Managers should be familiar with most of these concepts.

Many Product Managers break into the role from related fields, such as design, engineering or data science. Their expertise and experience enables them to cover some of the Product Management responsibilities directly and even take on adjacent responsibilities when needed. They’ve also worked with or as part of a product team, so they understand what the role requires and how to collaborate with other functions.

Generally, the more mature an organisation, the more likely there is dedicated counterpart for each of these responsibilities. In early-stage companies, Product Managers usually cover a broader set of functions. For example: If there are no Engineering Managers, Product Managers might play a more active role in managing the delivery. If there are no Product Designers, Product Managers might design the product. Product Managers might own the pricing and P&L of the product.

The Fundamentals illustrate where Product Management is situated in an organisation and describe related functions. However it doesn’t tell us much about what a Product Managers actually does, which brings us to…

Product Management Skills

For part two of our Learning Path, let’s dive into the core responsibilities and activities of a Product Manager:

1. Product Strategy: Defining a product vision

Hi there and a warm welcome to the new members 👋

I’m back from a long writing break, so today I have something special for you: A Learning Path to help aspiring and growing Product Managers break into the role and level up. Scroll down to see the visual Learning Path.

Happy reading and learning!

How to become a Product Manager

I frequently receive the question “How can I become a Product Manager?” This question can be tackled from two perspectives:

• The career path perspective: What career steps should I take to get a Product Manager role?
• The knowledge/skill perspective: What knowledge and skills should I develop as a Product Manager?

While they are related, today we focus on the second perspective: The concepts and skills Product Managers should be familiar with and master. The purpose of this learning path is to help you position yourself and identify areas for growth.

Fundamentals

You might be familiar with this ‘Venn diagram of Product Management’, placing it at the intersection of Technology, Business and the Customer/User Experience.

Expanding on those, there are five areas Product Managers should be familiar with:

1. (Web) Technology: How the internet works/HTTP, Application Architecture, Frontend/Backend Stack, Development Process. Replace this with the respective technologies relevant to your product, e.g. VR, ML, Native Apps…
2. Design: Design Thinking, UX, UI, Prototyping, Problem/Solution Space
3. Business: Business Model, Revenue/Cost Structure, Financial KPIs, Pricing
4. Engineering/Delivery Management: Scrum, Kanban, Backlogs, Estimations
5. Data Analytics: Data queries, SQL, Sample size, Statistical significance, Data visualisation

You’ll find a more detailed breakdown of these fundamentals in the visual learning path below. Notice that each of these areas offers a career path in itself. It’s not feasible to be an expert at several of these — Product Managers should be familiar with most of these concepts.

Many Product Managers break into the role from related fields, such as design, engineering or data science. Their expertise and experience enables them to cover some of the Product Management responsibilities directly and even take on adjacent responsibilities when needed. They’ve also worked with or as part of a product team, so they understand what the role requires and how to collaborate with other functions.

Generally, the more mature an organisation, the more likely there is dedicated counterpart for each of these responsibilities. In early-stage companies, Product Managers usually cover a broader set of functions. For example: If there are no Engineering Managers, Product Managers might play a more active role in managing the delivery. If there are no Product Designers, Product Managers might design the product. Product Managers might own the pricing and P&L of the product.

The Fundamentals illustrate where Product Management is situated in an organisation and describe related functions. However it doesn’t tell us much about what a Product Managers actually does, which brings us to…

Product Management Skills

For part two of our Learning Path, let’s dive into the core responsibilities and activities of a Product Manager:

1. Product Strategy: Defining a product vision