The 3 Traits to Make you An Outstanding Product Person
Learn what it takes to become a bulletproof product person
Many people ask me what they should know to stand out as a product person.
It’s not about what you should know but who you should be.
You can develop knowledge when you identify the gaps, but who you are is way more important than what you know.
You may master all the modern frameworks but lack the resilience to keep moving when the odds are against you.
You may understand all the core aspects of product management but struggle to keep motivated when opinions drive roadmaps.
You may dominate the most advanced product tools yet resist stepping into the unknown.
Theory and reality tend to go opposite ways in digital products.
Your attitude defines how you can move the needle.
This premium episode of Untrapping Product Teams covers the following:
Free subscribers: Overview of the critical traits of outstanding product managers (5 minutes of reading time)
Premium subscribers: Detailed examples of how to bring the traits to life (18 minutes of reading time)
Shall we rock it?
The 3 Traits of Outstanding Product People
For many years, I thought I was a bad product person. I didn’t understand many frameworks or lacked expertise with the tools everyone was talking about. I missed what most did. Yet, I kept moving from place to place and getting promoted. Why did that happen?
Adaptability is the keyword for it.
Let me share a little secret with you. I’m lazy, and I hate planning.
My attitude towards everything is simple. I worry about what stands before me and do my best to overcome such challenges. No matter the result I face, I move on. Often, I hit the wall. Yet, I don’t mind. I reflect, learn, and try something else. That has been my attitude from software engineer to chief product officer.
Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of product professionals. Most worked in similar ways: talked to stakeholders daily, worked with customers whenever possible, curated the backlog, and worked with product teams—business as usual. What surprised me was the traits I found in product people who continuously delivered outstanding results and skyrocketed their careers.
Three traits are what separate the best from the rest. Let’s look at them in a nutshell.
1. Communication
When I first started my career as a product person, I struggled to describe my job. Eventually, I came up with the following:
I talk to a lot of people. The magic happens when I can create alignment from the exchanges, uncover value drivers, and prioritize what to work on next.
It’s a complicated job.
You need to master communication, knowing who to talk to when, how, and how often. That implies storytelling, written and verbal communication, empathy, and the ability to read the room.
I cannot understate the importance of communication. No product professional can succeed without being an excellent communicator.
2. Curiosity
You don’t know what you don’t know.
This statement is paramount in digital products. The more you think you know, the less you can benefit from hidden opportunities.
The truth is that creating digital products means we lack more knowledge than we recognize. The blindspot matrix helps us categorize our available knowledge.
Solving problems, nobody is solving, or in ways, no one is doing enables teams to create outstanding products. You won’t manage to do that without stepping into the unknown. Curiosity is vital for your success.
Being curious means:
Accepting we don’t know everything and yet being eager to step into the unknown
Challenging old ways by experimenting with unproven ways
Being brave to try things out, nobody or only a few are trying it out
Focusing on benefiting from opportunities instead of avoiding risks
Outstanding product people are too curious to play it safe.
3. Resilience
If you decide to be a product professional, you will:
Receive more top-downs than you can count
Taste bitter failures
Discuss the same topic several times without any mood for it
Struggle to get support from everyone necessary
Be ignored more often than you can imagine
And yet, it’s your responsibility to drive value for customers and the business.
Resilience is what keeps you standing up after falling several times. You won’t find the perfect world for digital products. If you do, get me in. You will find challenges to overcome without clear ways of doing that, meaning that you will fail more than you will succeed.
I know it sounds depressing. Well, being a product person isn’t always fun—that’s life. But you can create value and enjoy the journey when you’re resilient enough. The best definition of resilience I’ve ever found comes from Sylvester Stallone in the movie Rocky Balboa. It reflects what it takes for product people to keep moving forward.
“It Ain’t how hard you hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s about how much you can take and keep moving forward!”
Several times as a product person, you will wonder why you’re still playing this game. What’s in it for you? There will be bad days and good ones. The challenge is to keep moving forward after the bad days.
Resilience will influence your motivation and ability to progress despite adversities.
Reflect on this question: where do you get your motivation from?
Answering this question is fundamental to understanding your drive. Outstanding product managers are self-driven professionals, while others show a go-with-the-flow attitude, which limits them from unleashing their potential.
How would you answer the following:
Do you need external incentives, or are you self-motivated?
Do you let the status quo limit you or drive change no matter how it scares you?
Do you complain about things you dislike or take action regarding them?
The more your answers are to the right, the more self-driven you are. That’s what helps you overcome your bad days easier and shine during your good ones.
Being resilient will enable you to be self-driven. With a strong drive, you will motivate teams to create what they don’t even know to be possible.
What It Means to Be an Outstanding Product Person - Real-World Examples
Attitude is the biggest differentiator between outstanding product people. How they deal with challenges and opportunities makes them stand out. Here are a few examples: