What Makes a Good Product Manager?

What makes a good Product Manager? I see this question a lot: It pops up on online forums, at events, in webinar talks, and even in casual conversations in person. PMs are eager – sometimes desperate – to understand what needs to be done to perform at the highest caliber of the industry. 

It seems a simple question in principle, but when you dig deeper, this whole conversation becomes a bit more philosophical. Sure, I can (and will) rattle off some essential skills and characteristics that make for a strong Product Manager, but I think this question is looking for a lot more than this. 

When a PM asks, what makes a good Product Manager, they’re also asking, ‘How am I judged as a Product Manager?’ ‘What does success look like as a Product Manager?’ ‘What actually are my main goals as a Product Manager?’ 

As you can see, there is a lot to unpack. So let’s do it. What do you need to do to be great? What makes a good Product Manager? 

What does it mean to be a good Product Manager?

To be good, you first need to define what good looks like. You’d think that would be easy, but it’s not. Being considered good is an assessment. A measurement. So what are you getting measured up against? 

For me, the biggest barometer of how good you are as a Product Manager is how well you facilitate the main goal of Product Management. But what is the overarching goal of the role? 

What is the core, single priority for Product Managers that every task and responsibility can be distilled down to?  Well, I think it’s something like this:

This goal is universal. it should be the same for every single Product Manager, regardless of industry or company size, but how you achieve this goal is where things start to change. 

The context often influences execution. A Product Manager in one industry will need to do different things than another somewhere else, even though they’re chasing the same goal. What defines “good” in one environment might not translate to another.

You could have endless expertise leading startups through their first years and getting them to $1M MRR. But pluck you out of that small pond and into an enterprise business, and things might look different, you may struggle. Because the goalpost has moved. 

Would that make you a bad Product Manager? To that enterprise company – maybe – but a startup that’s looking to get off the ground may come across your Product Manager portfolio and see you as an angel sent from heaven.

What I’m saying here is that good can look like many different things. Sure, every PM has the main aim of connecting customer needs with business goals, but there are many different ways to get there. 

So what does it mean to be a good Product Manager? That depends on where you’re standing.

What skills make a good Product Manager?

When asked what makes a good Product Manager, most will recite a list of the hot skills they think you need to fulfill the Product Manager role. Prioritization, communication, stakeholder management, blah, blah, blah. Yes, knowing the skills you need to tune up is a big part of being a good Product Manager, but it’s only half the story. 

Don’t just hit the books in an endeavor to be the best. It’s easy to get stuck in learning mode, diving into the theory, and taking Product Management courses instead of going out there and getting the experience. 

But, here’s the thing. It’s the doing that’s important. The miles in the tank matter more than any framework you can memorize.

So, don’t worry too much if you don’t think you have all the answers. The best plan of action isn’t to wait until you have all the skills you need. You need to just get out there and learn as you go.

Of course, we’re not dismissing the need for honing your Product Management skills altogether. They do matter, so much so that we have covered them a lot here at ProdPad. If you want a full rundown, check out The Product Manager Career Path is Not a Straight Line. 

Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you empty-handed here. Here’s a quick overview of the skills you need to excel as a Product Manager: 

• 🔝 Prioritization – Making tough calls on what moves the needle.
• 🗣️ Communication skills – Aligning teams, internal stakeholders, and customers.
• 📊 Data-driven decision-making – Using insights to back up product ideas.
• 🚀 Execution – Turning strategy into shipped product features.
• 🤝 Stakeholder management – Navigating competing interests with diplomacy.
• 🧩 Problem-solving – Breaking down challenges and finding solutions.
• ⭐ Leadership skills – Guiding cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• 🎯 Strategic thinking – Seeing the bigger picture and making long-term bets.
• 🛣️ Roadmapping – Setting clear, realistic product directions.
• 🖥️ Technical skills – Technical knowledge to understand how products get built.
• 🔄 Adaptability – Pivoting when things don’t go as planned.

Now, as PMs, we live by prioritization – finding those high-impact, low-effort moves that make the biggest difference. If you’re looking at this list and wondering where to start, there’s really just one skill that ties everything together. If you boil all these skills down, there’s one thing an effective Product Manager needs. 

That one skill is….empathy. 

The one major skill you need is empathy. For customers, stakeholders, and the team. Without empathy, the PM can’t truly understand the problem or rally the team around solutions. Empathy is at the heart of curiosity and storytelling.

Empathy is what turns a decent PM into an exceptional one. Think about it:

• Customer empathy helps you see the product from their perspective, ensuring you solve real customer pain points that improve user experience rather than just shipping features.
• Stakeholder empathy helps you balance competing priorities, build buy-in, and keep everyone aligned, even when tensions run high.
• Team empathy helps you create an environment where Engineers, Designers, and Marketers feel heard and valued, leading to stronger collaboration and better outcomes.

Empathy is what helps you ask why instead of just what, making you a better decision-maker. If you want to become a better Product Manager overnight, start with empathy.

What do good Product Managers do? 

Being a great Product Manager isn’t just about what you know – it’s about what you do. A good Product Manager can be defined by their actions. Skills are useful, but the real magic happens in how you apply them.

Einstein wasn’t a great scientist just because he memorized formulas. He was great because he used them in novel ways. Likewise, a Product Manager isn’t great just because they know frameworks, roadmaps, and product strategy. They’re great because they execute them in a way that moves the product and team forward.

To be a good Product Manager, your actions need to match your ambitions. If the last section covered what you should know and the qualities you should have, this section covers what you should do. These are the habits that set successful Product Managers apart, according to discussions from all around the web.

Good Product Managers make things simple

Simple goals. Simple processes. Simple communication. A great PM ensures that everyone knows what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

Good Product Managers deeply understand their product

Not just the technical side, but how it fits into the market and into users’ lives. They know its strengths, its weaknesses, and where it’s heading.

Good Product Managers have a strong product sense and endless curiosity

Great PMs have a strong product sense where they constantly seek to learn, be that about customers, competitors, and trends, so they can make smarter, better-informed product decisions.

Good Product Managers communicate with clarity and confidence

They can talk to anyone – engineers, executives, customers – adapting their message to the audience. And when they need to say no, they do so with data and reasoning to back it up.

Good Product Managers foster strong relationships with stakeholders

Building trust and understanding with internal stakeholders across the organization makes for smoother collaboration and decision-making so that everyone is aligned toward common goals.

Great PMs prioritize customer engagement

Actively engaging with customers will give you invaluable insights into their needs and pains. This direct interaction will help the product evolve in line with their expectations.

How do you measure the performance of a good Product Manager? 

Product Managers are always going to be judged by others. We’re brought in to make a difference and ensure a sensational product or feature hits the market. So, there’s high expectations. How are people measuring the performance of Product Managers to see if they’re meeting those expectations, and more importantly, how do you track your own performance?

Metrics seem an obvious place to start. Are you hitting your target objectives and key results? While metrics might seem like a clear-cut way to gauge performance, they don’t tell the full story.  Remember, KPIs aren’t targets for an individual to hit, it’s a goal for the entire Product Team. Achieving a KPI is a group effort. Hitting a target means the team is working well, but shines little light on your impact as a Product Manager. 

Instead, it’s more useful to look at how you as a Product Manager helped your team hit those numbers. So, it’s not the numbers themselves, but the methods they followed to get there. Instead of hard numbers and data, you’re looking at soft skills and those intangibles. 

It’s best to judge your performance as a PM by looking at how you align the team to the vision and its impact on the culture. It’s more about how you make decisions and communicate them than the decision itself. 

Ask yourself: 

• Did I align the team around a clear product vision?
• Did I help simplify complex problems and drive better decisions?
• Did I foster an environment where my team could do their best work?
• Did I make sure customer and business needs were understood and balanced?
• Did I communicate priorities effectively and ensure the right things got built?

I know this is all less tangible than simply ticking off a goal, but that’s the beauty and also the trick of Product Management: success is not measured by a single goal. It’s reflected in the impact you have on your team, your product, and ultimately, your potential customers. 

What’s stopping you from being a good Product Manager? 

Some unfortunate Product Managers are up against challenges that hinder their ability to positively impact their company. Not every Product Manager struggling in their role is actually bad at their job.

Many PMs aren’t set up for success because the people around them have the wrong idea of what good Product Management actually looks like. 

Many Product Managers are being steered away from the main goal we talked about early on. Attention is being pulled from this universal target to instead focus on something else that makes them less effective, all because of what others define as success. 

Key stakeholders can have a different idea of what good looks like, compared to actual PMs. 

• Sales want new features ASAP to close deals.
• Leadership demands rapid execution because any delay is a waste of resources.
• The business measures product success by output, rewarding PMs for shipping fast rather than shipping right.

We know better than this, but Product Managers rarely have any authority to change this. When the loudest voice in the room (or the highest-paid one) calls the shots, PMs can end up running a feature factory instead of driving meaningful impact. This looks like progress, but you’ll end up with a flashy-looking product that doesn’t meet the mark, and fingers pointing at you asking why. 

How do you fix this? 

The art of saying no

If you want to break out of this cycle, you need to master one essential skill. You need to learn the art of saying no. 

That doesn’t mean being difficult. It means managing stakeholders effectively. Speak their language. Back up your product decisions with data. Shift the conversation from what gets built to why it should (or shouldn’t) be built. Encourage a culture of validation over assumption. 

Of course, all this is easier said than done, but if you can navigate these conversations, you’ll not only protect the integrity of your product, but you’ll define what good Product Management truly looks like. 

Check out this article for more tips on how to manage stakeholders and master the art of saying no.

Advice on how to become a good Product Manager

When striving to improve, it’s always smart to seek advice from those you trust and respect.

But instead of loading you up with the usual “do this” and “do that” advice, I believe it’s more valuable to highlight some of the things you absolutely SHOULD NOT DO. 

To help with that, I’ve asked my network what’s some of the WORST advice they’ve ever received. The advice that they wish they had ignored from the start. Advice that often leads PMs down a dangerous or unproductive path. Here’s a collection of those responses, each offering insight into common mistakes PMs make when they follow the wrong guidance.

“You are the CEO of your product.”

Advice like this comes up a lot and is a warning against falling into the trap of ‘founder mode’ as a Product Manager.

The problem with this advice is it encourages PMs to take a “top-down” approach where they believe they should make decisions in isolation, wielding authority over their product with little regard for collaboration. 

Being a “CEO of your product” implies a level of detachment from the team, ignoring the collaborative, cross-functional nature of Product Management. The best PMs know how to lead with influence, not authority, and understand that great products aren’t built by one person’s decisions, they’re the result of diverse inputs from Design teams, Development, Marketing teams, and of course, the customers themselves.

“Don’t spend time building your Product Team structure when you could be spending time speaking to customers.” 

While customer interviews and research are essential, this advice completely undervalues the importance of having a strong team structure to deliver product insights effectively.

The idea that team structure isn’t important because you should be focused on speaking to customers misses a key point: Product Managers can’t execute alone. Building the right team and processes is just as critical as understanding the customer. 

Without a solid Product Management team structure, you’ll struggle to implement the customer insights you gather, making this focus on user feedback pointless.

“Just deliver features as fast as possible.” 

This one might sound familiar – many PMs face this pressure early in their careers. The belief here is that speed equals progress. But it doesn’t.

The fundamental issue with this advice is that it focuses on output over outcome. Speed might make you feel productive, but in reality, delivering features without proper product validation and alignment with user needs leads to wasted effort. 

It results in a product that may look good on paper but ultimately fails to address the real problems users face.

“Just build the feature because this one customer is asking for it.”

This piece of advice emphasizes customer feedback, but it’s a classic example of the danger of letting one voice guide decisions for the entire user base.

While customer feedback is invaluable, acting on a single request is a slippery slope. Building products based on individual customer demands, especially when they’re not representative of your broader user base, leads to a fragmented, incoherent product. 

Just because one customer asks for a feature doesn’t mean it’s a core need. You need to do product discovery to figure out what your customers are crying out for.

Now, this is all pretty rotten advice that would lead you down the wrong path. But here’s one from me that I think is possibly the most dangerous you can receive at the dawn of your career.

“Just be a people pleaser and follow the process.”

Yuck. Horrid advice. As a product person, I think it’s important to make sure that you’re able to take a stand and are able to identify where you should push back. It’s all in the art of saying no, and not just assuming that what’s being fed to you is the right thing.

Being a “people pleaser” and simply following the process might seem like a way to stay safe and avoid conflict, but it undermines the role of a Product Manager. PMs are responsible for making tough calls that may not always align with what others want to hear. The role involves balancing competing priorities, challenging and testing assumptions, and pushing back when necessary – even when it’s uncomfortable.

Now, I don’t want to see any careers ruined. Instead, I want Product Management to thrive. So, in all seriousness, here’s my genuine advice on what makes a good Product Manager:

Getting good at Product Management

Saying exactly what makes a good Product Manager is hard to nail down. What looks good in one situation may not be right for another. It’s all down to having what is needed for each scenario. 

Certain skills can help you become better as a Product Manager, as long as it’s all grounded in empathy and that you’re having a positive impact on your team. Being an effective Product Manager is more than simply hitting your KPIs. Your success is defined by how you go about things, and how you rally your team around a product vision. 

Good Product Management principles can sometimes be ignored for outputs, but it’s your job to steer everyone in the right direction. 

To become an even better Product Manager, you’re going to need the right kit. ProdPad helps you become a better Product Manager by giving you the tools to optimize your product roadmap, validate decisions with real customer feedback, and prioritize work with confidence. ProdPad is built on best practices, so you can focus on what matters most: building great products.

Try ProdPad for free today and see how it helps you work smarter, not harder.