The story of defining the technical skills required for a product manager.

Introduction

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of people calling themselves product managers. I am one of those people, but I often feel that the role and definition of PM is very vague.

The role of the product manager is not as clear-cut and is fraught with ambiguity. Because of this, I was (and still am) troubled by my own career and the career development of my members.

Product Management Triangle

Well, what I think of as worries are the greats of the world. We are already thinking about it. The most famous is Dan Schmidt's Product Management Triangle.

This product management triangle. It is a genuinely nice framework, but it's a bit esoteric for me and my own organization, and I haven't been able to use it well in my regular communications.

It may not be suitable for capturing the level of individual PMs. I also felt that there was a sense of challenge.

How to Get a Product Management Internship in 2020 - The Ultimate Guide

And this blog from Markup Hero was also helpful.

How to Get a Product Management Internship in 2020 - The Ultimate Guide

This article for interns was very helpful in creating a skills classification. It categorizes for interns what they need to learn to become a PM.

# Markup Hero is a tool like Gyazo in Japan.

Then let us define the skills required for PMs in a way that we can easily understand! This is the beginning of a movement within the company, and we decided to make something that suits us.

“We make our own place”

That is how I came up with the Product Manager SkillChart Hex, which visualizes the necessary skills of a product manager.

PM SkillChart Hex

This hex (hexagon). It is represented by a hexagonal radar chart as shown below, with a structure that allows you to express your skill level as a score for each of the six vertices.

HEX Basic 6 Areas

There are a wide range of skills required for a product manager.
However, while discussing the required skills among PMs within the company, it was suggested that they could be divided into six areas.

Those are the following six skill areas.
1. Project Management
2. Dev.
3. Design
4. Growth
5. Business
6. Domain Knowledge

Project Management refers to the knowledge, ability and experience of project promotion, which is essential for product development and improvement.

Dev. is the area of skills, experience and knowledge that you can develop yourself, including front-end, back-end and infrastructure.

Design refers to the skill of creating your own designs from the ability to write wireframes, including UI/UX knowledge.

Growth is a competency related to the operation of a product or site. We cover everything from operation and maintenance to site strategy planning including KGI and KPI planning.

Business is a skill area that includes general business skills, such as presentation and facilitation, to lead the product from a business perspective.

Domain Knowledge is how well you know your industry-specific knowledge. A product manager is a person who creates a product and a person who creates a business. In order to do so, it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the industry and what is going on.

I think that a product manager needs to develop the skills of these six areas and have them both.

The six areas of HEX are grouped into two abilities

The six areas listed above can be divided into two main categories of competencies. This is the ability to “create” and “promote” products.

In other words, my interpretation is that product managers need to acquire the skills to "create and promote the product"

So, how are the levels of each domain defined?
It is noted below.

First, we will describe the following three contents of the ability to create.
1. Project Management
2. Dev.
3. Design

1.Project Management

The first ability to create is Project Management.

In it, each of the five levels from Lv 1 to Lv 5 is defined as follows.

For example, if you are a fledgling PM, your first goal is to be able to hold a level 1 “hearing and define the requirements of the project”

Lv.1 Hold a hearing and define the requirements of the project
Lv.2 Decompose requirements definitions, organize tasks and create schedules
Lv.3 Manage a project until release without delays in the schedule.
Lv.4 Able to manage projects regardless of whether they are waterfall or agile
Lv.5 Plan and execute optimal projects in terms of cost, risk, resources, and quality.

So, what are the skill elements needed to reach the Lv 1 mentioned above?
The following table defines the skills and knowledge required for that Level 1.

Lv 1 states that you should be able to lead brainstorming meetings, conduct user interviews, and create and tabulate surveys to gather information.

If these items were completed, the level would be 1.0

Once you can gather information and define requirements for Lv.1, the next step is to move on to Lv.2, which is to break down the tasks and create a schedule.

When I think I am about halfway through Lv.2, I will set my Lv.5 to 1.5.

I think it is a good idea to try to score these points by yourself and ask your superiors or those around you. By combining your senses with the evaluations of your surroundings, you will be able to clearly recognize your own abilities.

It is difficult to create a strict standard for this kind of LV feeling, so I think it's okay. In a sense, I am trying to keep the ambiguity of PM.

Ultimately, you will be asked to aim to be able to build a project plan with Lv 5 cost, risk, resource and quality awareness.

Lv 5 is like a Superman.

2.Dev.

The next step is development (Dev.), and PMs need to have experience and knowledge of development (of course). The hex defines it in five steps, as follows.

Lv.1 Understands the process of completing a website.
Lv.2 Can create a simple web page using HTML/CSS
Lv.3 Able to direct a static site.
Lv.4 Ability to direct dynamic sites and native apps.
Lv.5 Able to direct, including building an infrastructure environment.

First, students learn basic web literacy knowledge, HTML and CSS, and aim to be able to create simple websites by themselves. The goal is to learn server-side scripting as you move up in lv.

There are several languages in Lv.4, but I think it is enough if you can control one language for your company.

3.Design

The last part of the ability to create is design.

Now, it is possible to make minor changes to sites such as KAIZEN and KARTE (CX toolsi in japan) by the PM and director side without the help of engineers.

To a certain extent, you need to be able to control the expression of the site on the PM side, and turn the PDCA cycle, including A/B testing (it was a revolution from 20 years ago). With this background, each level is defined as follows.

Lv.1 I can handle the tools required to create a design.
Lv.2 I can define a persona.
Lv.3 I know the basics of creating a website.
Lv.4 You can give the desired impression.
Lv.5 You can design an IA for the entire site.

In my opinion, the most important job for a PM is to design the best user experience possible. The design perspective is the ability to build on that knowledge and ability.

The next three are the "ability to promote”

4.Growth
5.Business
6.Domain Knowledge

4.Growth

From a business point of view, the product is not the end of creation, but the subsequent growth phase is more important. lv1 aims to maintain the current operation, and first aims to keep the effect of the product intact.

Lv.1 Can maintain the current operation.
Lv.2 Able to compile, analyze, and report indicators on sites and operations
Lv.3 Implement and execute measures to address site and business issues.
Lv.4 Plan and design measures for site and business issues
Lv.5 Can run a website that balances business goals and user experience.

As you advance in level, the skills and abilities required will increase, and eventually you will need to be a leader who is able to coordinate with other departments and operate with both business goals and user experience in mind.

Growth requires a diverse knowledge of SQL, analytics tools, SEO and content marketing.

5.Business

Next up is business. No matter how much development knowledge and design ability you have, you cannot be a PM if you don't have a business sense and perspective. The final goal is to be able to acquire basic financial statement and management knowledge such as P/L, B/S and C/F.

Lv.1 Understand the business model and create easy-to-understand documents
Lv.2 Able to conduct a basic analysis of the assigned area, identify and prioritize issues
Lv.3 Can think of tactics from a marketing perspective and deliver results
Lv.4 Able to set out a vision and run an organization
Lv.5 I can assist management in making decisions based on three financial tables.

6.Domain Knowledge

The last is industry knowledge. There are often PMs who are only interested in development, but I do not think I can call them PMs. You will never be able to make a good decision unless you have a good knowledge of your field or project area.

Since En Japan, where I belong, is in the HR industry, the definition of the company is as follows

Lv.1 You understand your company's HR services.
Lv.2 Understands HR services other than your own.
Lv.3 has input on HR technology trends.
Lv.4 You have input on the laws and trends related to "work" and "labor" in the human resources industry.
Lv.5 Have an idea of how to improve existing services or plan new services based on labor market trends.

I hope that each company will replace this Domain Knowledge with the one to which each individual belongs as appropriate. The knowledge you need to know should be different in each industry.

Lastly

These charts can also be used to check personal skills and can also be used for one-on-one career discussions with members.

My subordinate: "Here's my skill chart.
Supervisor: "Hmm-hmm. You are a little weak on Dev. so let's get up there in the medium term first! I guess Growth is next.
My boss: "Let us set some goals for that too.
My subordinate: "Yes, please!

In addition, I think it is possible to create an ideal team formation by comparing multiple PM charts.

I think that "PM SkillChart HEX" can be used for various people and PMs in the company if only the Domain Knowledge area is changed.

These skills chart. I am sure there are still some strange points, so I'd like to keep updating it within the company. Since my organization is still in the process of developing, I would like to borrow the wisdom of various people and grow.

Also, it would be great if various people could create charts based on this chart to suit their company in various ways.

I hope that various PMs in various organizations will be able to use this as a reference.