Top Product Manager Skills You Need to Succeed in 2025

Introduction

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together” – Vincent Van Gogh

I never wondered what goes into building the great products that I used in my daily routine while growing up as it was all about going to shop with my father to buy the same canvas shoes which everybody else had, the concept of brand wasn’t clear because we always bought things of the same brand, all the time – hair oil, soap, toothpaste, biscuits, tea bags and almost everything. I remember once a new restaurant opened in our small town and we spent almost our entire childhood going there.

Fast forward 25 years, I now live in Bangalore and there is almost no loyalty to any brand. Even the newspaper has gone digital, the milkman is replaced by an unknown delivery boy who works for the app from which we order, there are at-least a dozen shoe brands, the choices of cars are indefinite, even if you select one particular car it has more than a dozen variants. A friend of mine told me that a very popular motorbike brand has just launched an option to choose 100s of colors customised to your needs.

The demands are continuously evolving. Monopolies have almost vanished. People want things at lightning speed, there are multiple people earning in families and there are financial instruments like credit cards, micro loans etc. which have increased the purchasing power. The product mix is changing like never, even the soap section in a supermarket is not static, because the brands are continuously evolving and changing.

To survive, each business needs to understand this flux, continuously working on strategy to evolve, aligning it to a product vision and direct execution. That is where the role of a Product Manager or PM becomes very important. In this blog we will explore the role of Product Manager, core and technical skill sets required to be a product manager, the broader industry challenges and how to improve your product management skills.

Reach out to Benzne agile transformation services for expert support and guidance to build high-performing product teams if you are looking for external expertise to accelerate your product management and product development.

What Does a Product Manager Do?

A Product Manager is the captain of the boat, the director of the movie, the all-in-all of the product. He/She is responsible for the success through the tides of continuously changing market, dozens of competitors, partnering with internal and external stakeholders, various capability teams – design, sales, marketing, legal, audit, security, procurement and everyone else has to work with the Product Manager, while they make decisions on strategy, roadmap, features to add, remove or update, all the time.

PM is also looked upon as the voice of the customer within the organization, requires great articulation skills to explain the concerns of the customers & also the benefits of business to engineering, design and other stakeholders to bring that vision to life. Like a mini CEO of their product.

PMs should have the capabilities to influence, persuade and collaborate to achieve their goals & act as a key person or the one who is responsible for the product’s success or failure in the market.

Few of the responsibilities which makes Product Managers successful in their roles are –

• To know what’s going on in market in context of their product & related things, PM needs to conducting market research, analyzing data of competitors and also the target users in context to changing dynamics, and conduct surveys and interviews to collect the feedback of existing capabilities and also prototypes of planned capabilities to identify customer needs and market opportunities to create differentiator or spoilers
• As a part of this awareness building, the need to be mindful to align with the industry standards like HIPAA, W3C, HACCP, ANSI, ISO standards etc. based on their product context and stay up to date with the changing norms and prioritise the requirements accordingly, reflecting needful changes in the strategy also
• Aligning with the product vision which is usually made by product leaders, for the respective product and based on that developing a clear and concise strategic product roadmap to decide the future backlog which is aligned with the vision all the time. In many companies these days, these vision expectations are also communicated in the form of OKRs (objective and key results). This aspect of knowing what to build is also called as ‘Product Discovery’
• Once the PM knows what to build and why, it is important to determine when to build i.e. the order of priority to follow so that they could incrementally deliver the features based on need-basis value to both customers and business. To decide which features to build and when, they use various techniques like WSJF, RICE, MoSCoW, value risk impact analysis etc. At times being intuitive is more important instead of fully relying on such models
• Once the order of priority is decided, it is time for supporting Product Delivery. That requires collaborating with Engineering and Design to ensure the product is built to spec and meets user needs. The Engineering team is primarily responsible to implement the solution and deploy it further.
• While building product strategy, discovering requirements and delivering features are important but it all boils down to impact that it is expected to create & PM continuously track progress through metrics, setting leading & lagging indicators, measures against the KPIs targeted for success, analyzing user behavior and iterating on the product based on data and feedback
• PM also communicates the product’s progress to all the stakeholders along with challenges, and opportunities. This will lead to asking future investments, showcasing earned value against the spent, help and support required. All this is not just as a part of process but the need to let those who are funding, know the worth of the investments, to share feedback to everyone on the contributions made, to inform all about the changes in industry, the need for scaling or certain intentional decisions, all to benefit customers, business, partners through the product.

Importance of Skills Required for Product Management

As  we have explored the responsibilities of the Product Manager, we need to also explore the skills required to carry out the responsibilities. Have you found the disconnects in your organization where a person is carrying a certain, performing responsibilities but not at all having the skillset to manage that. It is just a bad hiring or possibly just promoted someone who the organization felt if they couldn’t leave the organization and hence good for retention. I suggest, it is time to realise that a donkey, if tasked to run in the horse-race wont become a race-horse and will perform like a donkey only. Trust me I have huge respect for donkeys because they do certain jobs, which are critical which horses, tigers and lions also can-not do. So, lets explore the skills required –

1. To know what is right for the product, you need to first know what is right for the business and customers in terms of viability and desirability, respectively, and then looking up at feasibility of the solutions to find just-enough features that could create impact that will sustain the business and then continuously making more additions to keep customer engaged and satisfied.
2. Ability to get things DONE requires relentless chase to all the stakeholders required and onboard them & that requires ability to communication effectively, prioritizing requirements firmly, and leadership skills to rally cross-functional teams for developing capabilities to enrich product
3. PM must have the ability to think critically, solve problems, and make decisions  all the time & in times of uncertainty, it requires most, allows PM to navigate the inevitable twists and turns of product development
4. Many PMs they lose their eye from the core purpose of the product which is to build product that meets customer needs and achieves business goals contributes directly to the company’s bottom line

Skills Required for a Project Manager to Manage Product

I have recently heard a conversation between two of my friends, one a Project Manager & the other one a Product guy and surprisingly, I gathered that both were saying how irrelevant their roles are. They also started referencing the debates on linkedin and certain trends in organizations where following narratives came out –

• Product Management is a new buzzword & companies want to simply position themselves as Product organization (even though they are running the show with a project based approach)
• Project Managers are labelled as Product Managers just after getting them certified
• Project Management was only needed in waterfall model & not in agile

My take is, both roles are important & it is important to distinguish between the skills required for a Product Manager and that of a Project Manager, though some skills may overlap. A Project Manager focuses on the execution of a plan, ensuring that a project is completed on time and within budget. A Product Manager, on the other hand, focuses on the strategy and what needs to be built.

However, a Product Manager does need some project management skills to be effective. Following are the skills required for a Project Manager to manage product:

1. Create and manage timelines – As you are aware that product roadmap is used by Product Managers to explain the strategy to all the stakeholders, it is actually a timeline view which showcases the expected timeline for delivering valuable outcomes and how they are achieved by finishing certain features. Planning is important considering the scope, cost and time but at the same time it is important to build an impactful product then just creating something and blindly following the plan. To be execution centric is good but to manage product, one needs to be outcome centric
2. Managing resources not just for managing capacity but also determining required competencies  – Delivering product is collective ownership where the engineering teams have the technical skillset required to implement solutions and the Product Manager is responsible to explain the outcome, trust the competencies and deliver the work to create impact. Product Manager has to closely work with the engineering, design, and other teams is required to ensure they have the resources they need
3. Manage scope – The project management could be less burdensome when the scope and resources are locked and then its about managing on-time delivery but in today’s environment the requirements are continuously evolving and so it is important to look at both big picture and the continuous changes in the scope because the strategy will also pivot as we move forward. Therefore it is important that managing scope is about defining and controlling the boundaries, analysing the impact of scope creep, communicating to the stakeholders and understanding that while we want to be agile but that doesn’t mean no planning.
4. Mitigate Risks – To manage product it is important to see risks beyond the project management metrics, the risk of losing business in terms of loss of opportunity if we miss to deliver certain features to market, risk of not complying to industry standards and many such risks which are product-focused and not just confined to project management.

To manage Product being a Project Manager is all together a new skill and shouldn’t be taken lightly by Project Managers.

Product Manager Technical Skills: What You Need to Succeed

Nobody expects a Product Manager to be a coding genius. But having a solid feel for the basics? That’s a game-changer. It helps you talk sense with your engineers, understand what’s possible (and what’s a nightmare to build) and make smarter calls. Here’s what we are talking about:

Technical Understanding

• How does software actually get built?

You’ll hear engineers talk about “Agile,” “Scrum,” or maybe even “Waterfall.” These are just different ways, different philosophies really, for how teams create and update software. Knowing a bit about these approaches, and the general journey from an idea to actual working software, means you’re not lost in those conversations. You will get why things take time.

• Knowing about your own product

It’s pretty handy to know the main ingredients of your product. Like, what are the main programming languages involved? What kind of database does it use? Is it floating around in “the cloud”? You don’t need to be an expert, but knowing the basics helps you understand its strengths and weaknesses.

• The APIs used

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) might sound super technical, but think of them as really good translators or messengers that let different software programs talk to each other. If you get how they work, you can start imagining all sorts of cool ways your product could connect with other services and tools out there.

It’s a bit like driving a car. You don’t need to be a mechanic, but you know what the steering wheel does, you understand the brakes are pretty crucial, and you know the engine needs fuel. That basic knowledge means you can have a sensible chat with the mechanic when something’s up. Same deal here.

Understanding of UX

User Experience, or UX, is absolutely massive for a PM. You have got to be tuned into:

• User Centered Design

Seeing through your users’ eyes: This is what “User-Centered Design” is all about. It means every decision, every feature, starts with thinking about what your users actually need and what they’re trying to achieve.

Making things a breeze to find: Ever used an app or website and felt totally lost? That’s usually bad “Information Architecture.” A good PM thinks about how to organize everything so it just makes sense and people can find what they need without a treasure map.

• Checking if it works for real people

You can have the coolest-looking design, but if people can’t figure it out, it’s a flop. “Usability Testing” is just watching actual users try to use your product. It’s amazing what you learn by just observing – where they get stuck, what confuses them, what they love.

• Sketching out your ideas first – Prototyping

Before anyone writes a line of code, you need a plan. “Prototyping” – making simple sketches, wireframes, or more polished mockups – helps everyone see what you’re aiming for and how it might work.

Imagine trying to build a house without any blueprints. It’d be chaos! A PM who really gets UX is like a great architect. They don’t just make sure the house stands up; they design it so it’s comfortable, makes sense to live in, and maybe even looks pretty good too.

AI Tools & Automation Skills for Product Managers

You can’t really ignore Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation these days – they’re popping up everywhere and definitely changing how products are built and what they can do. A smart PM will want to get their head around:

• The basics of AI

No need for a PhD, but understanding the general ideas – like “machine learning” (which is basically computers learning from lots of data) or “natural language processing” (how computers can understand and use human language) – is becoming really important.

• How can AI supercharge your product?

It’s already happening. Think about those eerily accurate recommendations you get on streaming services, or chatbots that can actually help you solve a problem. That’s AI working its magic to make products smarter and more helpful.

• Tools that make everyone’s life a bit easier

There are loads of automation tools out there now that can take care of the repetitive, time-consuming tasks. This frees up you and your team to focus on the more creative, problem-solving stuff.

I strongly believe that AI can gobble up huge amounts of data, make pretty smart guesses about what users might do next, and take over those boring tasks that nobody really wants to do. This means you, the PM, get more time to think about the big picture and strategy. So yeah, getting comfortable with AI and how automation can help? It’s not really a “nice-to-have” anymore; it’s pretty much essential for a PM who wants to stay ahead of the curve.

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Being able to look at a bunch of numbers and actually understand what they are telling you is a huge deal for a PM. It’s not just about staring at graphs; it’s about:

• Figuring out what you even need to measure in the first place

Things like how many people are using your product & which features more (that’s user engagement), if they are doing what you hope they will do (like signing up – those are conversion rates), and if they are generally happy (customer satisfaction).

• Getting comfortable with tools that help you see this data

You’ve probably heard of Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or similar ones. They are just there to help you collect and see the numbers.

The real trick is then looking at all that information and saying, “Okay, what does this mean for our product? What should we do next because of it?”

And sometimes, you’ll want to test things out like, “I wonder if this button color works better than that one?” That’s where A/B testing comes in – you try out different versions with different users to see what actually performs better.

Honestly, think of all this data as your product’s school report card. A PM needs to be able to pick it up, read through it, understand where the product is working and where it’s not doing well, and then use that to make things better.

Research Skills

Good research skills are absolutely vital. A PM needs to be naturally curious and good at digging for answers. This means:

• Keeping an ear to the ground for what’s happening in your market, what your competitors are up to, and really getting who your customers are – their ages, what they like, what they need.
• Actually talking to people! This could be through interviews, sending out surveys, or getting a group together for a chat (a focus group) to get their honest feedback.
• Taking a good, hard look at what your competitors are offering – what are they great at? Where are they falling short? Where’s an opening for you?

It really is like being a detective. You are gathering clues and evidence from all over the place to build a clear picture of the market, your users, and the competition. All this homework is what helps you make smart calls for your product.

 

Core Skills Needed for a Product Manager

So, beyond the savviness of tech and the data, there are some core things every Product Manager just needs to be good at. These are the foundational bits that let a PM lead well, get people on board, and really make a product take off.

Business Acumen

Business acumen is just means to understand how the business world works, especially the one the product lives in. This includes:

• Knowing what the company is trying to achieve overall and how your specific product helps get it there. What are the big goals?
• Having a basic grip on the financial matters – what’s revenue, what are costs, and how do we make a profit? You don’t need to be an accountant, but you need to speak the language.
• Staying plugged into what is new in your industry, what the other players are doing, and even what is happening with the economy that might affect things.
• Making sure your plan for the product actually lines up with the company’s bigger plan.

A PM with good business sense is like a chess player who is not just looking at their next move, but at the whole board. They see how their product fits into the grand scheme of things and how it can help the company win. This is seriously important stuff.

Critical Thinking

This is all about looking at information with a clear head and making sensible judgments. It means you are good at:

• Spotting the assumptions people are making (including your own!) that might be influencing decisions
• Really listening to different arguments or points of view and figuring out which ones hold water and which don’t
• Recognizing if your own personal feelings or biases might be clouding your judgment – we all have them!
• And finally, putting all the pieces together to arrive at a logical conclusion based on what you actually know.

In product management, you are going to be hit with a ton of information from everywhere – customer complaints, amazing new ideas from the team, market research reports, what management thinks. Someone with sharp critical thinking skills can cut through all that noise, find what truly matters, and make the best call for the product.

Problem-Solving

So much of a PM’s job comes down to solving problems, big and small, all day long. To do it well, you need to:

• Dig deep to find the real reason something is an issue, not just fix the surface-level symptoms.
• Get creative and brainstorm a bunch of different ways you could tackle the problem.
• Then, weigh up the good and bad points of each potential solution to pick the one that makes the most sense.
• And finally, actually put that solution into action and keep an eye on it to see if it worked.

Think of a PM as a bit like a doctor. A patient comes in feeling unwell (that’s your user with a problem). The doctor needs to figure out what is really causing the illness (the root cause) and then decide on the best way to treat it. That is what a good PM does for their product and its users.

Prioritization Skills

Here’s a universal truth for PMs: you’ll always have more cool ideas, feature requests, and things you could do than you have time or people to do them. That’s where being amazing at prioritization comes in. It means:

• Figuring out how much real value each potential new thing will bring – both to the customer and to the business.
• Being realistic about how much effort and what resources it’s going to take to actually build each thing.
• Being able to make those hard choices about what gets done now, what waits, and what might never get done, especially when you can’t do it all.
• Sometimes, using handy frameworks (you might hear names like Eisenhower Matrix, WSJF, RICE, or Kano model) to help make those decisions a bit more structured.

A PM is kind of like a gardener with only so much space in their garden. They have to choose which seeds to plant and nurture and which ones to leave in the packet, all to make sure the garden that does grow is the best it can be.

Strategic Thinking

This is about more than just what is happening this week or next month. Strategic thinking means you can see where things are headed long-term and make decisions today that will pay off down the road. This involves:

• Painting a clear, exciting picture of where you want the product to be in the future – that’s your product vision.
• Laying out a roadmap – your product strategy – of how you are actually going to get there.
• Keeping an eye out for new technologies or shifts in the market that could impact your product, for better or worse.
• Making sure your product’s strategy is pulling in the same direction as the company’s overall goals.

A PM who thinks strategically is like a chess grandmaster, always thinking several moves ahead, anticipating what others might do. They are not just focused on the immediate tasks; they are thinking about where the product needs to be in a year, or even five years, to still be winning.

Communication Skills

This is absolutely, positively critical. A Product Manager has to talk to so many different kinds of people, and they need to do it well. You’ll be communicating with:

• Engineers, explaining what needs to be built and why, often getting into the technical weeds.
• Designers, working together on how the product will look and feel, and giving useful feedback.
• The Product Leaders (executives), keeping them updated on your product strategy and how things are going.
• Customers, listening to their feedback and understanding what they really need.
• Sales and Marketing representatives, giving them the info they need to sell the product and get it out there.

Good communication isn’t just talking, it’s:

• Really listening to what people are saying, trying to see things from their point of view.
• Writing things down clearly and simply, so everyone can understand.
• Being able to explain your ideas in a way that gets people on board, that’s persuasive.
• Using pictures, charts, or diagrams when they help get the point across better than words alone.

Think of a PM as a translator. They need to bridge the communication gaps between all these different groups, making sure everyone’s speaking the same language and pulling in the same direction.

Storytelling & Product Evangelism

These are super powerful ways to communicate. A PM needs to be able to:

• Weave a really engaging story about the product – what it does, why it matters, and how it helps people – in a way that clicks with whoever you’re talking to.
• Share that exciting vision for the product, inspiring others with what it can do and the problems it can solve.
• Get people genuinely enthusiastic about the product, both inside the company and out in the world.
• Be the product’s champion, constantly promoting it and its benefits.

Imagine a PM as a storyteller around a campfire, drawing everyone in with an exciting tale. A great product story can fire up your team, convince an executive to back you, or make a customer really want what you have got.

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

This is all about being able to influence people and guide the product to success, even when you are not technically anyone’s boss. A PM needs to:

• Get people to follow their lead and get excited about the plan, often when they don’t directly report to them.
• Build strong, positive relationships with all sorts of people across the company (these are your stakeholders).
• Be good at negotiating and finding solutions when people disagree or have different priorities – aiming for a win-win.
• Help groups make decisions effectively and without getting stuck in endless debate.
• Set clear goals and make sure the team knows what’s expected of them.

A PM is a bit like a shepherd, gently guiding their flock (the product team and all the interested stakeholders) towards the same important goal. They need to lead, inspire, and look out for their team, while always keeping the bigger company picture in mind.

Adaptability & Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

The world of product development is always changing, so being adaptable is key. A PM has to be able to:

• Be open to new ideas and not afraid to change plans when it makes sense.
• Be comfortable making decisions even when you don’t have all the answers or things are a bit unclear – because they often are!
• See failures or setbacks not as disasters, but as chances to learn something and do better next time.
• Sniff out potential problems ahead of time and figure out how to deal with them.
• Avoid getting stuck trying to make everything perfect before making a decision; sometimes you just need to make the call and move forward.

Picture a PM steering a ship through a crazy storm. The weather’s all over the place, the waves are huge, and you can’t quite see where you’re going. A good PM can keep their cool, adjust the sails as needed, and find a way to get to their destination, even when things are tough and uncertain.

The Broader Industry Challenge

You know, it’s a shame, but a lot of companies, even ones that say they’re all about “product,” don’t always get the PM role right. It’s pretty common to see these kinds of problems:

• PMs just taking orders: Instead of leading the charge on strategy, PMs end up just doing tasks and building features someone else (like a founder or the sales team) told them to. They don’t really get to define why they’re building something or what the most important thing to build is.
• Not enough digging or user focus: Everyone’s so focused on just churning out stuff, that they forget to check if it’s the right There’s not enough talking to users, and decisions aren’t really based on what customers truly need.
• Roadmaps as rigid to-do lists: Product roadmaps end up being these fixed schedules of when features will be delivered, instead of what they should be – flexible plans that change as you learn new things from users and the market.
• Thinking success is just shipping features: The main goal becomes just getting features out the door, not whether those features actually solve a real problem for users or help the business.
• Strategy is seen as a “nice-to-have”: PMs are so busy executing that they don’t have the time or freedom to think about the long-term game or create a clear vision for the product.
• No real ownership or power: PMs are told they’re responsible for how well the product does, but they don’t have the actual authority or resources to make the big decisions that would make a difference.

When this happens, PMs basically become firefighters, always running around dealing with the latest emergency instead of actually steering the product in a smart direction. It kills innovation, makes “product thinking” almost impossible, and stops PMs from doing their best work.

The real problem is that many places just don’t quite get what product management is all about or what it truly takes to build amazing products. Unless companies fix these deep-seated issues and really empower their PMs to own their products, the whole industry will keep struggling to get the full value out of this super important role. If this sounds familiar, maybe even looking into getting some outside help from experts who specialize in agile transformation services could help bridge that gap.

How to Improve Product Management Skills?

Becoming a great Product Manager is a journey; you’re always learning, always growing. Here are a few straightforward ways to keep sharpening those skills:

• Ask for feedback, and really listen to it. Seriously, it’s a gift.
• Learn from other PMs, designers, engineers – anyone who’s good at what they do.
• Consider taking some courses or workshops if there are specific areas you want to boost.
• Read! There are tons of great books, blogs, and articles out there about product management.
• Go to conferences or local meetups when you can – it’s a great way to learn and meet people.
• And most importantly, just keep doing it. The more you practice these skills in real-world situations, the better you’ll get.

Conclusion

The role of a Product Manager has many responsibilities and it is quite demanding, as it requires a unique blend of technical knowledge, business acumen, and also finesse in soft skills. Understanding the user needs and there are many different types of users, also called personas, then finding the benefits of business in short and long term and defining product strategy that provides direction to cross-functional teams and all of this to drive product success. These demands a lot of skills to be a product manager to navigate through the complexities of the product world.

We believe that this blog could give you a required direction to start your journey to be a highly effective Product Manager, capable of building products that not only meet customer needs but also drive significant business value.

With this, our blog on “Product Manager Skills’ comes to an end. We sincerely hope this has helped our readers and given a fair bit of understanding on Product Manager Skills. We would be glad to support your organization’ product capabilities at Benzne Agile innovation consulting. Please write to us at “consult@benzne.com” for any feedback or for any support in your transformation journey.

Frequently Asked Questions About Product Manager Skills

1. What is the most important skill for a product manager?

If I had to pick just one thing, or at least what I hear people stress the most, it’s probably communication. A Product Manager is constantly talking to so many parties – engineers, designers, the business executives, and actual customers. Being able to get your ideas across clearly, listen well, and make sure everyone’s on the same page is just huge. Of course, there’s a whole bunch of skills that make a good PM, as you might have gathered from reading up on it, but good communication is like the oil that keeps everything else running smoothly.

2. Do product managers need to know how to code?

Short answer is No. You don’t need to be a coding whiz who can build an app from scratch. But, having a decent understanding of how tech works and how software gets made is incredibly helpful. Think of it this way: it lets you have much better conversations with your engineering team, you will get it when they talk about technical roadblocks, and you can make smarter decisions that are actually doable. So, not a coder, but definitely tech-savvy enough to hold your own.

3. How does AI impact the role of a product manager?

AI is definitely shaking things up, and for PMs, it’s mostly in a good way by giving us some competent new tools and abilities. Imagine AI helping you sift through mountains of data to find insights, or assisting with understanding what users are really saying, or even helping to create those super personalized experiences you see in apps. So getting a basic grip on what AI is and what it can do is becoming pretty crucial. It helps PMs spot chances to use AI to make their products and strategies even better. It’s definitely a skill that’s going to be high up on the list for PMs going forward.

4. How can someone transition into a product management role?

There is no single path, which is sufficient and many ways to get in product management:

• Sometimes people move over from another role within their own company – like from engineering, marketing, or support.
• Others make a complete career switch from a different field altogether.
• Some take graduate programs that have a product management focus.
• And then there are bootcamps and courses designed to teach you the ropes.

No matter how you get there, the key is to really work on those core PM skills we have talked about and try to get some hands-on experience. That could be through side projects, internships, or even volunteer work. And definitely keep learning about what is new and important in the PM world!