(From L to R: Mr Goh Boon Nam, Head, Digital Academy Services, NUS-ISS; Ms Dorothee Garth, Principal Lecturer & Consultant, Digital Products & Platforms Practice, NUS-ISS; Ms Boo Yong Nee, Deputy Director, Product Delivery Office, Government Infrastructure Group, GovTech Singapore; Mr Scott Si, Senior Lecturer & Consultant, Digital Products & Platforms Practice, NUS-ISS; Mr Abhishek Jaiswal, Principal Product Manager, Loyalty & Purchase Experience, ZALORA; Mr Tay Li Soon,Lead Product Manager, National Digital Identity, GovTech Singapore; Ms Amy Huang, Chief, Digital Products & Platforms Practice, NUS-ISS)
Among those curious about the field of product management, the most common question is this: Do I need to possess technical skills to be a good product manager?
A simple question – but “there is no straightforward answer to it,” says Mr Scott Si, Senior Lecturer & Consultant, Digital Products & Platforms Practice, NUS-ISS.
Speaking at the Tech it or Leave it: Technical Skills You Need in Product Management panel discussion at NUS-ISS, Scott explains that the role of a product manager is a multifaceted one.
“(A product manager) is a flexible role that requires a myriad of skills, because you’re responsible for finding the balance between three key elements: user needs, business viability, as well as the technological feasibility of a product,” he says.
Moderated by Ms Dorothee Garth, Principal Lecturer & Consultant, Digital Products & Platforms Practice, NUS-ISS, the panel discussion held on 26 May 2023 featured experienced product practitioners from industry and the public sector. They shared insights on the various pathways into product management and delved into the essential technical and non-technical skills for the role.
The panellists include Ms Boo Yong Nee, Deputy Director, Product Delivery Office, Government Infrastructure Group (GIG), GovTech Singapore; Mr Abhishek Jaiswal, Principal Product Manager, Loyalty & Purchase Experience, ZALORA; and Mr Tay Li Soon, Lead Product Manager, National Digital Identity, GovTech Singapore.
Tech-ing advantage
As someone who transitioned from a software development to product management role, Abhishek shares how his technical background helped him in his current job scope. “When you work with engineers day in and day out, there’s going to be a lot of technical jargon thrown at you. My background in software engineering definitely makes it easier for me to process these technical concepts and communicate with the team.”
He highlights two key scenarios in which his technical skills came in handy. The first scenario is when they are “fighting fires”, or tending to urgent and unexpected problems that arise. “During such intense situations, I was able to work closely with the team and speak their language to figure out what’s happening, and then we resolve issues together.”
During the process of developing new features, Abhishek’s ability to read technical documents written by the engineering teams also enables him to apply his product lens in a more holistic manner. “As I look at the information architecture, I am able to quickly understand and relate it back to the key concerns of a product manager: Is this scalable? Would users like it? Is it flexible enough for us to pivot in case we want to do so in the future?”
His experience was shared by GovTech’s Li Soon, who also came from a software development background. “(The technical skills required) also depend on the nature of the product that you are developing. For example, if you’re building a coding software that engineers use, it would definitely help if you yourself knew how to code.”
Li Soon adds that while coding is not a necessary skill for most product managers, it’s a “good hobby to have”. He explains that it teaches individuals basic concepts such as how data structures work, while reinforcing logical and problem-solving skills. “It adds to your toolbox of skills, which you can draw on to solve a variety of problems.”
Fostering trust
While technical skills are important, there are many successful product managers who come from non-technical backgrounds. Scott, who was a product marketer and strategic analyst before he joined the field, is one of them. He emphasises on the importance of understanding your own strengths.
A critical question that Scott asked himself when he first became a product manager was: What can I bring to the table? “I realised that I was able to bring the most granular view of customer understanding to my development teams and my engineers,” Scott says. “I assured them that they can rely on me to help them design and create the most desirable product for our customers.”
This approach helped him to gain the trust of his engineering and development teams – which he explains is the greatest hurdle a non-technical product manager had to overcome in the initial phase.
However, Scott stresses that this does not mean one can be complacent about upskilling. “Picking up technical skills along the way can definitely make you a more all-rounded product manager.”
In Scott’s case, he upskilled himself in analytics which enabled him to use data to achieve an even deeper understanding of customers. “Subsequently, I also progressed to learning how to read and write SQL scripts so that I can easily extract data from the database on my own, rather than having to rely on my data team all the time.”
What about the non-technical skills that product managers have to learn? Shedding light on the journey of how GIG transited from a project management to product management mindset, Yong Nee says there’s “no shortcut” when it comes to such lessons.
She explains: “There’s no hard and fast rule that can help you succeed, and most of the time, we were just learning on the job.
“In the past, our primary concern was about delivering a product on time and within budget. But when you take a product-centric approach, the focus is shifted – it’s about understanding and meeting user needs, while also considering the solution’s long-term business value and viability,” Yong Nee says, adding that it was a mindset that was initially lacking within GIG and that they had to build over time.
Learning how to learn
“In product management, having a growth mindset is important,” says Scott, who encourages individuals who are getting started in product management to build their competitive advantage by staying curious. “With technology developing at such a fast pace, learning how to learn – and doing so quickly – is a very useful skill.”
Summing up the panel discussion, Dorothee advises aspiring product managers to view the essential skills in product management as a spectrum. “Subscribing to a binary distinction of technical and non-technical skills can be quite daunting. There are so many roles that a product manager has to play, and you will definitely benefit from acquiring a diverse set of skills,” she says.
Find out more about NUS-ISS Digital Products & Platforms programmes here.