All the Best Product People Share this Essential Product Management Skill

Whenever I talk to someone interested in pivoting to a product management career, the big question is this: What are the most important product management skills and credentials I need to have. Is it a high-powered degree, or an extra certification, or a specialized background, or an ability to write code?

Nope. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, those elements are nice, but they don’t make up for a characteristic that tends to be present among all the rockstar product people I’ve worked with (especially those in tech).

And that characteristic is — drumroll please – an unquenchable, never-ending, must-get-to-the-bottom-of-it sense of curiosity. 

Why Curiosity is Crucial in Product Management

I’ve written before about how product people need to be good generalists with a broad base of experience, but they also need a certain amount of technical knowledge to thrive. 

I maintain that you don’t have to be an expert who knows how to write your product’s code, but you also can’t shy away from learning beyond the surface level. Doing this requires a certain level of curiosity, and when you know how to cultivate it, you look like a natural in your role.

So, how do you get better at honing this quality? It can vary from person to person, but a few things are certain.

Before I share my list of how-tos, I want to clarify that being curious is more than just a “tell me more” mindset, especially if you work in tech. You have to be willing to go beyond reading articles and roll up your sleeves a bit.

Doing so will allow you to see connection points that you may not otherwise see. It also results in better product designs / services / solutions / team collaboration / value to customers. The more you have at your disposal, the richer the outcome will be.

Here is How to Cultivate this Rockstar Characteristic

Have Humility

If you want to get better at your job and build smarter products, you’re going to need to rely on people who know more than you do. Find the subject-matter experts in your org and buy them a coffee. Show a little humility by asking them to help you learn more in the spirit that it will help you create better outcomes. And go into it with the mentality that there are no dumb questions (if someone tells you otherwise, find a different resource). 

A good example is the AI takeover we’re currently witnessing. Depending on the product you work on, you may be inclined to dismiss AI because it “doesn’t affect you.” But a curious person would partner with an expert to grow some degree of understanding about how it works and the ways it could potentially impact your product (or improve it).

Extend Empathy

In the product management world, we’re constantly trying to build solutions that will make customer’s lives easier. Now I’m asking you to extend that same empathy to your technical partners. 

This will require some leaning in, but the more you understand what each partner is trying to accomplish, the better your outcome will be. Removing walls between roles is what opens the door to a ton of possibilities.

Take the Product Owner and Engineering Lead I met a few years ago while doing product team assessments. The PO was new to her role, but had a lot of heavy experience in business and design. In contrast, the Engineering Lead had been on the same team for years and actually wrote some of the source code. 

I assumed they’d need to make every decision together to be successful, but then I watched them embark on an ethnographic study of each other’s role. They conducted immersive intensives and taught one another about their respective disciplines. 

This exchange allowed each person to apply their own expertise through a new lens so they could operate more autonomously and in synchronization, all at the same time. 

It’s not about knowing how to do each others jobs, but knowing enough to listen for the things that matter, ask smarter questions, and build better products. In the end, you’re both better for it. 

A little empathy goes a long way!

Curiosities role in product management skills

Try not to limit curiosity to what’s obvious in your own corner of the tech universe. If you work in ecommerce, look beyond shopping-cart technology. If you work in customer service, think beyond call centers and interactive voice response. Be expansive in your curiosity because the seemingly-unrelated tech adjacent to your own product could actually offer a huge opportunity to innovate. The idea of looking to “analogous” experiences for inspiration and information has deep roots in design thinking, and it’s useful when you apply it to your own thinking, not just to your product. 

Product people are expected to come into their roles with business acumen, an understanding of the product strategy and design, and a general knowledge of the technology their product is built on. And all of that is fine if you just want to do your job. But if you really want to excel in your role, build killer products, and create smarter outcomes, then you’ll need to embrace curiosity along the way.