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Why Being Technical as a Product Manager Matters
Technology is a Language
As a Product Manager, you are the leader of the product team, ultimately providing direction for the entire software development team. While it is not necessary for Product Managers to have coding skills, you do need to understand conceptually the function of the software features and how they fit into the big picture. There are many technical aspects of being a PM such as knowing about data structures, data tables, algorithms, security issues, and more. It is important to be technical because it helps product managers know what's possible so they can create something amazing with limited resources while avoiding wasted time on tasks that don't matter when building the final product. Technology is like a completely different language, and both sides (business and technical sides) need to be able to understand each other. For example, during scrum, as technical issues are being discussed, you, as the Product Manager, need to understand the details of the issue and determine the best path forward for resolution. You can only do this if you can speak the technical language both in understanding and speaking it so that the technical team can receive it accurately.
Requirements Documentation Required
Inherent to all SaaS Enterprise Product Manager functions is the need to translate business requirements into directions to the software development team on what to build. This is done in the form of a Product Requirement Document (PRD) or Functional Requirement Document (FRD). As such technical writing is imperative to the position. Without solid technical writing skills, Product Managers couldn't tell developers what a product should do or how it should be improved.
Technical writing need not necessarily require a lot of jargon and complicated language. The best technical writers create product specs, features, and detailed requirements that can be understood by any developer. The secret to quality specifications is supplying enough detail on what needs to be done, but not on how to do it. However, being technical allows the Product Manager to make decisions on what to write and how detailed the spec needs to be properly communicated. Product Managers with good technical writing skills find that they can speed up the product development process because there are fewer misunderstandings between them and the development team.
Technical writing need not necessarily require a lot of jargon and complicated language. The best technical writers create product specs, features, and detailed requirements that can be understood by any developer. The secret to quality specifications is supplying enough detail on what needs to be done, but not on how to do it. However, being technical allows the Product Manager to make decisions on what to write and how detailed the spec needs to be properly communicated. Product Managers with good technical writing skills find that they can speed up the product development process because there are fewer misunderstandings between them and the development team.
Earn the Respect of the Tech Team
In most organizations, the Product Management team leads the organization, translating the business needs to drive the specific activities of the software development team. However, architects and developers hate to waste effort and time. Being technical provides confidence and respect to the development team, knowing that you treat each of the development resources as a scarce resource, understanding the work they perform and the level of difficulty for specific features/functions, and truly focus on impactful activities that translate into rapid revenue growth.
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Quality Decisions
As a Product Manager, you are constantly making decisions as to features, functions, defects, technical debt, technology, and strategies. If you are unable to understand the unique value proposition of each feature and function which requires a technical background, then you will not be able to make the right decisions.
For instance, we viewed a job description for a Product Manager that required background/domain knowledge in at least two of the following: identity management, security token services, distributed policy management, and data labeling. If you are unable to understand how important these capabilities are with respect to the overall product function, how can you make quality decisions? The PM serves as a central product information hub for people across the organization. That means the PM needs to be the corporate expert on the competition, market trends, and other factors that might affect products. The more technically savvy a PM is, the more comfortable the PM will be more prepared to properly react to these new technological opportunities and pitfalls.
For instance, we viewed a job description for a Product Manager that required background/domain knowledge in at least two of the following: identity management, security token services, distributed policy management, and data labeling. If you are unable to understand how important these capabilities are with respect to the overall product function, how can you make quality decisions? The PM serves as a central product information hub for people across the organization. That means the PM needs to be the corporate expert on the competition, market trends, and other factors that might affect products. The more technically savvy a PM is, the more comfortable the PM will be more prepared to properly react to these new technological opportunities and pitfalls.
Self Check the Tech Team
Let's face it, developers hate grey. Software developers and their managers tend to be overly conservative in the evaluation of tasks, and sketchy about commitments where all the factors that may influence a task are not completely known. Being technical helps better identify when the engineers or developers are wrong (or even exaggerating a bit) in the planning or resource estimates they give you.
In addition, being technical provides an ability to develop realistic roadmaps for specific timelines, and understand how external influences should influence the roadmap versus resources.
