Product Management Skills

Before you start, read this:

What is this?

The below guide shows the 4 key areas of Product Management that you will build skills and behaviours in across your career.

Once you have completed the sheet, record your scores for each section and keep a record of them (there's a handy second sheet on this document to do that if you wish).

Fill this sheet in blindly once every quarter, not looking at your previous scoring. As you grow your skills, your scores will go both Up and Down.

How do I fill it in?

First clear all the current coloured cells - they'll just have random characters in them and are only there as a visual aid. Then start from the level 1 for each of the skills and start working your way upwards, just put any value in each cell and it will be counted. If you complete 1 level at a certain skill, then move onto the next level and fill it in. Don't move onto the next level unless you feel you are at level 5 within the previous level.

Why would my scores go Up AND Down?

As you grow and understand your strengths and weaknesses, you will see the scores in areas you have grown increase which will reflect your personal development.

Scores should also go down as you become more self reflective and realise that a strength you thought you had may not be as strong as you initially perceived. This is positive - as Product People we need to be self reflective and we may also see that as we invest in one area - we may damage another and that may then need more investment.

The scoring mechanism used in this sheet is a similary used tactic to the Kessler score used in mental health practitioning - which is used to track improvements to mental wellbeing over a period of time.

How do I use this document to learn and grow?

Once fully filled in, the sheet should clearly show you where your current strengths and weaknesses lie. There is no perfect way to grow as a Product Manager as we all have varied background and all work in different organisations so there isn't a perfect 'next thing' to focus on. Instead - look at the areas with the lowest score that are holding you back in your current organisation or Product and think about which would best suit you right now to grow on. Next time you fill this in, your hard work should reflect in your scores.

Want an extra challenge?

Get a mentor or colleague to fill this out for you to reflect where they think you are and compare it to where your own personal scores are. This will help you understand where people perceive you are and understand where others see your strengths and weaknesses.

Discovery

Qualitative Analysis

Understand customer needs & product success qualitatively

Customer & Market Awareness