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Omni-directional

What makes a good product manager? Or a great product manager? Or even a bad product manager?

I think a great PM is some who can think and execute on all the four directions:

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Majority of early stage PMs will do the Team management part - ensuring that the stories are groomed, the Why is answered and the team is generally getting work done. A few will add data to the mix - this is not only the product data, but also competitors or adjacent industry data - in building and prioritizing the work.

As seniority increases, stakeholder management and future/strategic thinking kicks in… That's where you start seeing the - relatively - ugly side of Product management. With stakeholder management, it's harder to keep alignment, the higher you go… Similarly, with too much strategic thinking, balancing uncertainty - making bets v/s building the known - is far too riskier for the career.

However, in my opinion, a great PM is someone who has a horizon level view of all the four directions and can emphasize on anyone direction as the need arises - either themselves or through their team.

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