We expect every product manager to be actively talking with customers and really spending a lot of time understanding customers. But it’s not just a product management thing. Engineers are expected to be talking with customers as well.
3. Strategic - You have PMF and a 2-3 year runway. Your Strategic PM, usually director level or VP level, will take your company's overall long-term vision and lay out the pathways that pave your way towards that. These pathways involve major decisions that could alter the company's future.
Good product managers think about the story they want written by the press. Bad product managers think about covering every feature and being really technically accurate with the press.
1. Know Your Team's Dunbar Number : Building real relationships both broadly and deeply within the company while not overextending. Engineers should have a keen and current understanding of not only what the work is, but also the decisions behind each product feature. Context is king for cross-functional teams.
Conceptual integrity makes the product both easier to develop and easier to use, because this integrity is communicated to both the development team and the user, through the product.