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What are some key skill sets for a product manager?

Farheen Noorie
Zendesk Senior Director of Product ManagementApril 20

Product Management is a bit hard to list skills for because product managers wear so many different hats and each company has a different way on how they think of product management. But I do think there are some broad skills that PMs should have or build as they think of their career. 

  1. Hustle - This is the number 1 skill that I look for. If you have this everything else follows or can be built.
  2. Empathy - Understanding your customer and being able to put yourselves in their shoes
  3. Storytelling - Communication is key for product managers but I think its super important to be able to tell effective stories/narratives. 
  4. Prioritization - As a PM you need to make prioritization decisions everyday. Its key to have a good framework on how you are making those decisions and clearly socializing the framework as well as the decisions with your stakeholders and partners
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