{"id":54489,"date":"2025-05-28T12:39:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academy.xebia.com\/us\/?p=54489"},"modified":"2025-05-28T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:39:54","slug":"how-to-develop-your-product-owner-or-product-manager-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/academy.xebia.com\/us\/how-to-develop-your-product-owner-or-product-manager-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"How to develop your Product Owner or Product Manager skills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\t\n\tHow to develop your Product Owner or Product Manager skills
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\n\tTo help product management professionals – like Product Owners, Product Managers, and Product Leaders – move forward, we\u2019d like to introduce you to our very own Professional Product Management (PPM) Competency Framework\u2122. With this article, you’ll learn more about the skills and competencies that will make you a truly great Product Owner, Product Manager, or Product Leader.\u00a0

We offer you a holistic perspective on the craft of product management and a framework for evaluating your capabilities as a product professional. To develop the right skills to move your career and the product management profession forward.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t1 June 2023<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

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\n\tHead of Product<\/p>\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\tQuestion<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\n\tWhat is one of the most-heard reasons for Product Owners and Product Managers to leave a company? <\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tAnswer:<\/strong> Research, surveys, and interviews among product professionals have shown over and over again that one of the most important reasons for leaving your company is the lack of personal growth. Product Owners and Product Managers simply feel they get too few opportunities to get more ownership, learn new skills, and move their careers forward. <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\n\tThe need for product leadership<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tGreat products delivered by amazing people are at the heart of any great company. Today\u2019s organizations are uncovering ways to deliver products and services of value more effectively and efficiently than ever before. However, delivering value to customers remains a challenge.

Companies are reinventing themselves in a way that power trickles down to the people and teams with the right knowledge and insights to make decisions. This change exposes a new kind of problem, though. The need for\u00a0product leadership.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\tKnowing what to build for whom and why<\/strong>\u00a0is what every company needs to discover fast, to stay relevant and successful. Often, the answer lies at the intersection of:<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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  • Something customers\u00a0love\u00a0<\/strong>(Desirability),<\/li>
  • Something with great market\u00a0potential<\/strong>\u00a0(Viability), and<\/li>
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    \n\tThat intersection, where UX, Business, and Tech meet, is the ultimate place to be.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0But it’s an ever-changing journey to get there. This is why we need to move the product management profession forward. The Professional Product Management Competency Framework is here to do exactly that.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\t\n\tWhat is Professional Product Management (PPM)\u2122?<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \n\tThe role of the Product Owner (PO)<\/strong> or Product Manager (PM)<\/strong> is often referred to as the ‘product CEO’. As great as that sounds, it \u2013 unfortunately \u2013 is different in practice.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tMartin Eriksson points this out<\/a> well:<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\t\n\t\u201cProduct Managers simply don’t have any direct authority over most of the things needed to make their product successful \u2013 from user and data research through design and development to marketing, sales, and support.”<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \n\tAlthough Product Owners and Product Managers are\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0the actual CEOs of a product, it shouldn\u2019t stop them from thinking like a CEO, or an entrepreneur. It shouldn\u2019t stop them from developing a broad range of skills, including business and leadership skills. It\u2019s not only about the next feature; it\u2019s also about understanding the domain and creating the autonomy to move your product ahead.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tLet\u2019s be clear. Product Management is a complex yet amazing profession. Being a Product Manager requires a broad range of capabilities, knowledge, and competencies. How the profession is defined and executed, however, greatly depends on your organization, product type, career path, and industry.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tFor example, some organizations consider the Product Management profession to be mostly about product development, deciding what products, features, and requirements to develop, and\u00a0in which order. For other companies, it relates more to product marketing, such as conducting outbound activities to generate product awareness, differentiation, and demand. For yet another group, it might correspond to technical product management, understanding the technical details of the product, or, for instance, managing legal aspects of a product, and so on.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tAs you may notice, product management consists of many different concepts, practices, tools, and responsibilities and is thus implemented differently. However, for every Product Owner or Product Manager like yourself, a similar set of practices and tools is available to further develop yourself.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tProfessional Product Management (PPM) creator<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\t\n\t“Being awesome in every aspect and area of the model would probably mean that you are from outer space because no normal human being can be perfect in everything.”<\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \n\t\n\tWhat is the difference between a Product Owner and a Product\u00a0Manager?
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    \n\tBefore we continue, let\u2019s take a short side-step. In this article, we use Product Owner and Product Manager interchangeably, but it\u2019s good to get the semantics right.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tA question we often hear is, \u201cWhat is the difference between a Product Owner and a Product Manager?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tA simple way to explain this is that product management is a profession. And in product management, you manage a product end-to-end throughout the product life cycle. You are focused on:<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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  • Managing product strategy:<\/strong>\u00a0identifying and defining the customer\/market problem to solve, vision, strategy, product goals, and objectives.<\/li>
  • Managing product development:<\/strong>\u00a0Product Backlog, roadmap, prioritization, requirements.<\/li>
  • Managing product marketing:<\/strong>\u00a0Pricing, go-to-market, positioning.<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \n\tSimply put, a Product Owner is a Product Manager. A Product Manager could also be a Product Owner. The Product Owner is an accountability \u0618\u2013 or role, if you will \u2013 that originates from the Scrum framework. So, the names of the roles may have different origins, yet they are very similar.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tBoth Product Owners and Product Managers take on the duties of making their products a success in the marketplace. They both seek to solve the right customer problems and deliver the right type of value for it.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tThere might be situations where a company has both Product Owners and Product Managers, but in principle, there is no difference in accountabilities. Hence, the Professional Product Management Competency Framework tailors to both Product Owners and Product Managers.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\t\n\tOur Professional Product Management (PPM) Competency Framework<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    \n\tNow that\u2019s cleared up, we are excited to elaborate on the\u00a0Professional Product Management (PPM)<\/strong> Competency Framework<\/a>. Based on decades of experience in leading and transforming product organizations, and while considering existing frameworks available in the marketplace, we want to introduce this competency framework, covering\u00a0all<\/strong>\u00a0product management capabilities.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tThis framework is used by organizations to hire, develop, and retain product professionals. It’s a comprehensive framework that allows it to be tailored to your organization\u2019s specific needs.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tFigure 1. Professional Product Management (PPM) Competency Framework and Product Skills.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tRegardless of the specific implementation of the product management profession in your organization, we\u2019ve learned that the core of professional product management is formed by two competency areas: Communication<\/strong> and Entrepreneurship<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    \n\tBeing great at working with many different types of people, being able to identify the right (customer) problems to solve, and seizing the right opportunities together with them to maximize a product\u2019s value, are of critical importance to any type of product professional. This is why Communication and Entrepreneurship are at the heart of the Professional Product Management Competency Framework. <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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