We often talk about how a high level of technical proficiency is not what distinguishes greatness in the role of Product Manager. In fact we’re looking for an entirely different emphasis altogether.

Here’s an analogy that arose as we watch our kids progress through school: What makes an amazing 7th grade math teacher?

One thing is for sure - they need to deeply understand the material they are teaching. Students who are trying their best to understand new concepts are going to come at them with every kind of stumper. The teacher needs to really, really get it. (Similarly, a product manager similarly needs to understand their product and platform cold, or at least pretty close.)

That said, do great 7th grade math teachers need Ph.D.’s in Mathematics? No. Do they need to be able to calculate third derivatives in their head? No. Do they need to break historic new ground in the field of theoretical mathematics? Nope. 

Even if you wanted to be a truly GREAT math teacher, would that stuff help? Probably not. It might even get in the way.

Meanwhile, some other things would be essential — not just “nice to have” but non-negotiable.

You’d need to know how to make your subject exciting to students. You’d need to get great at building relationships and managing time and expectations of people with varying levels of interest. You’d need a high level of empathy and patience, and a talent for putting people at ease and gaining their trust. You’d need a high level of curiosity, not just about how to make math interesting, but what might make it the most relevant for your students.

To be truly great, you’d need to have mastered a long list of people skills, some of which could be represented on paper and some of which boil down to extra magic between the lines.

This is the type of greatness we’re looking for in a product manager. 

You want the person who cares deeply about the success of others and is constantly on the lookout for ways to make things easier, help people be more effective, or to connect the dots in a way that clears once insurmountable hurdles. You want a person who can absorb the mission of the organization into their veins and relentlessly think about how their technology might speed up the boat — everywhere from the engine to the bunks to the mess hall and everywhere in between. 

Most importantly, you want someone who believes in the power of their particular product or platform or technology, but understands that in the end, it’s all about the people — the people who use the tool, the people who interact with it, the people who need to glean intelligence from all that data, the people who will be impacted by it when its vision is fully realized.

When we say you don’t need an expert coder leading your product team, we’re not saying that just anyone will do. We’re not settling. We’re looking for greatness. It’s just a different kind of greatness altogether, and it’s the kind you truly need if your technology is going to thrive.