Product Managers and Technical Skills…What’s The Deal?
You don't need technical skills as a PM, unless...
Hi there, Product People. I’d like to talk about Product Managers and technical skills. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times the industry reassures newcomers that they don’t need to be a full stack software engineer to be a good Product Manager, this stereotype keeps coming back like a fly that refuses to be shooed away 🪰. Let’s address it!
Successful Product Managers come from a huge variety of backgrounds, and bring all kinds of skills to the table. That's what makes them so great! And yet…we all seem to stay hung up on technical skills.
So today I'm going to dive into these questions: do Product Managers need technical skills? Why does learning new tech skills feel like such an insurmountable challenge? And what can the Product Management field do to help non-technical applicants feel more welcome?
What Do I Mean By ‘Technical Skills’?
Technical skills, across all the various industries that claim the term, means different things. Even in the software development world, the technical skills needed by each team is quite different. There are a few core skills that are fairly universal:
Coding/Programming languages: Where all of tech begins! HTML, CSS, Javascript, C+, and Python are the most common for beginners.
SQL: Used for data management and manipulation.
Data structures and algorithms.
Technology is hugely varied, and ever changing. That makes it incredibly exciting for those who have technical knowledge and are entrenched in the industry. But to those looking in from the outside, with dreams of joining a Product Team, the expanse of the tech landscape can make it look inaccessible, especially to those who didn’t discover that tech was their passion while they were teenagers choosing a college degree.
For people who come to the tech world later in their careers, perhaps after having worked in marketing or sales, the ‘tech wall’ feels designed to keep them. This is disheartening, and certainly not conducive to a job search.
But the beauty of Product Management is that it sits at the center of many, many teams. We used to say that Product is at the center of design, business, and technology, but the truth is that now Product Managers are interfacing with more teams than ever. That's why communication and a willingness to learn are the two most important skills for a Product Manager to have.
That being said, Product Managers are still a part of the tech industry. Product Development is the process of building tech. So how much should Product Managers expect to understand? How essential is a technical background/deep technical knowledge to landing a job in Product Management?
It turns out that technical skills are not as out-of-reach as they first seem.
The Truth about Product Managers and Technical Skills
This question is multi-layered, so to get to the truth let’s keep things simple by running a quick FAQ session:
Q: Do Product Managers need to come from a technical background?
A: No. All roads lead to Product, and the strongest development teams have professionals from all backgrounds.
Q: Do some Product Manager roles have technical requirements?
A: Yes. Some roles will require a CS degree, or demonstrable knowledge of the tech skills needed for the job.
Q: Do Product Managers need to code?
A: Having an understanding is helpful, but your job isn’t Software Developer. Technical Product Managers will be expected to know code of course.
Q: What is a Technical Product Manager?
A: A Product Manager who specifically focuses on the technical side of a product, and will work more closely with an engineering team. A Technical Product Manager does need strong technical proficiency.
Q: What is a Full Stack Product Manager?
A: A Product Manager who has a little of everything and is needed to bring a product idea to life. (Marketing, Sales, Tech, Design, Business, Data, and Leadership.) Not to be confused with full stack developers, who have all of the technical skills to bring a product to life.
Q: So I don’t need to go back to college and get a CS degree to be a Product Manager?
A: No. Most of the jobs that ask for CS degrees will have similar counterparts that don’t.
A Product Manager’s relationship with their technical skillset is really no different to their relationship with their other skills. Take design for example.
A Product Manager will be managing a product that will need design. While the Product Manager won’t be doing the designing themselves, they’ll work with the designers to bring the product to life. The better they understand design, the higher the quality of their contributions will be.
That might be a very ham-fisted way to get the point across, but we can then apply this logic to all aspects of a Product Manager’s job.
A Product Manager will be managing a product that will need data. While the Product Manager won’t be alone in managing and manipulating the product data, they’ll work with the data scientists to come to the right conclusions. The better they understand data, the higher the more accurate their insights will be.
The same logic applies to tech skills. It’s just another aspect of the job that will need to be stronger for some roles more so than for others. It’s something that one company will require a strong grasp of, and other companies just want you to be willing to learn. Don't be intimidated by the technical side of things. Build a good relationship with your engineers and ask them as many questions as you need to. What you need to know depends on what your job asks of you, and not all technical skills will be helpful for all roles. On the other hand, if you're interested in learning more about a technical skill, don't be intimidated!
The Difference Between Knowledge and Curiosity
When I ask Product Leaders how important a technical background is when they’re looking for new hires, they'll usually tell me the most important thing is curiosity.
Product Managers are naturally curious people. You have to be if you’ve sought out a problem and are working on a way to solve it, that’s just part of the territory. And if you’re working in the tech industry, the likelihood is that you’re also curious about technology.
It’s that curiosity that will take you far within the tech world, not a prerequisite amount of technical training. In most cases, hiring managers are looking for candidates with the right core skills, the right attitude, and an open willingness to learn.
Of course, you need to have some idea of how it all works, but for many Product Managers understanding the tech they’re building is a surprisingly small part of the job.
Why Does Tech Feel So Inaccessible?
If technical skills have a similar level of importance to a Product Manager as data and design, why do we all seem to get so hung up about tech, and nothing else?
The tech world is just one of those things that looks a whole lot more complicated than it is. When you’re faced with your first ever wall of code, it may as well be ancient hieroglyphics. But anyone with an aptitude for languages, logic, or puzzles will be able to gain a basic grasp of HTML after only a couple of hours.
People’s apprehension of entering the tech industry is often based on their idea of how hard it is to learn the basics of tech. The problem sits rather in the perception of the tech industry itself, which has bled across to the perception of the work. Many people look at technical work and think ‘I can’t do that’ because the barriers to the companies that offer the work feel insurmountable.
Diversity, though something being actively worked on by pretty much all of the world’s major players in tech, remains an issue. The usual biases exist within hiring, but geographic bias is another impactful factor.
While of course it is possible to get your start in product outside of Silicon Valley, each country has its own ‘tech hubs’ and it can be tricky to find work outside of these places. Meaning if you live in one city and not the other, you’re going to struggle.
However, thanks to the shift to remote work, the geographical bias is starting to break down. According to Harvard Business Review, recruiters will be looking for talent outside of the usual clusters. This will help to close the diversity gaps by allowing companies to hire from under-represented communities.
Products are built for everyone, and so they should be built by everyone. Little by little, the tech industry is striving to become more inclusive. Each year the barriers get a little lower, and easier to climb.
You might also be interested in: The European Product Scene + 7 Cities Product Managers Love
How To Learn Technical Skills As a Product Manager
If you do find yourself interested in learning technical skills, you'll find that a lot of them are not really that difficult or expensive to pick up. Ask you team or your manager for recommendations and feedback to get some direction on what skills and courses would be best for you.
Many tech experts who didn’t earn a CS degree in college cite The University of Google as their main teacher…meaning that whatever you want to study, chances are you can find a course online! If you have the time, the motivation, and the self-discipline, you’ve got everything you need right at your fingertips.
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