Recently I read a good article ” Behind Every Great Product – The Role of the Product Manager “. I believe the most valuable part of the article is the section of “Characteristics of Good Product Managers”, and I would like to recommend this article to anyone who is interested in Product Management.

The article is reached as a PDF file here in Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) website’s Articles and Publications area.

The article’s author is Martin Cagan. He has over 20 years industry experience, and he was most recently Vice President of Product Management and Design for eBay. Prior to that, he had worked for HP, Netscape Communications, America Online. Martin said in the paper that the paper is based on work originally done while he was at Netscape Communications. More introduction for Martin Cagan can be found here in SVPG website.

Below I listed the structure of the article:

• Role And Responsibilities:
• • Identifying and Assessing Opportunities
  • Right Product/Right Time
  • Product Strategy and Roadmap
  • Manages Product Not People
  • Represents Product Internally
  • • Evangelism
    • Executive Review
    • Sales and Marketing
    • Represents Customer
• Characteristics of Good Product Managers
• • Personal Traits
  • • Product Passion
    • Customer Empathy
    • Intelligence
    • Work Ethic
    • Integrity
    • Confidence
    • Communication Skills
  • Knowledge:
  • • Know Your Customer
    • Know Your Product
    • Know Your Competitors
  • Attitude:
  • • No Excuses
    • Defining Success
    • Nothing Sacred
  • Skills:
  • • Applying Technology
    • Focus
    • Time Management
    • Written Skills
    • Presentation Skills
    • Business Skills
• Summary
• • Where To Find Product Managers
  • Tough Questions

It seems that this article was written in 2005. But do not get me wrong. Although it was written almost three years before, the article is still very valuable and deserve to read.