Plato
Back to resources

Should Product Managers be Technical?

Alignment
Managing Expectations
Product

3 November, 2021

Sambit Kumar Dash
Sambit Kumar Dash

Founding Director at Lenatics

Often in technology product management, this issue comes up. Generally, there is no consensus on it. I do not feel it harms being technical. Here is a story to illustrate the same.

I was discussing with a startup founder on a consulting engagement on Product Management Practices. We discussed improving his product management process and how he can do things better, etc. The more I talked to him; his real issue was a matter of innovation he had in mind. And, he wanted some serious analysis of his problem statement. Being a technical person, I probed deeper into the problem. Together we found a more appealing solution to the problem. It built a stronger bonding and business association. Not discussing the technical aspects would have made us go around in circles than coming to a closure. When it helps, be as technical as you can be in a particular situation.

Discover Plato

Scale your coaching effort for your engineering and product teams
Develop yourself to become a stronger engineering / product leader

Related stories

The Art of Asking Why: Narrowing the Gap Between Customers and Users

24 May

Jord Sips, Senior Product Manager at Mews, shares his expertise on a common challenge for product managers – finding root causes and solutions.

Customers
Innovation / Experiment
Product
Personal Growth
Leadership
Stakeholders
Users
Jord Sips

Jord Sips

Senior Product Manager at Mews

Streamlining Product Processes After a Reorganization

16 May

Snehal Shaha, Lead Technical Program Manager at Momentive (fka SurveyMonkey), details her short-term technical strategy to unify processes among teams following an acquisition.

Acquisition / Integration
Product Team
Product
Building A Team
Leadership
Internal Communication
Collaboration
Reorganization
Strategy
Team Processes
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Snehal Shaha

Snehal Shaha

Senior EPM/TPM at Apple Inc.

Navigating Disagreements When It Comes to Priorities

9 May

Pavel Safarik, Head of Product at ROI Hunter, shares his insights on how to deal with disagreements about prioritization when building a product.

Innovation / Experiment
Product Team
Product
Dev Processes
Conflict Solving
Internal Communication
Collaboration
Convincing
Strategy
Prioritization
Pavel Safarik

Pavel Safarik

Head of Product at ROI Hunter

A Look Into the Hiring Pipeline: How to Fine Tune the Interviewing Process

9 May

Sourabh Sahay, Engineering Manager at Meta, discusses how talent acquisition can be made more efficient by refining the hiring processes.

Alignment
Different Skillsets
Building A Team
Hiring
Fairness
Sourabh Sahay

Sourabh Sahay

Engineering Manager at Meta (Facebook, Oculus, & Family of Apps)

Balancing Technical Debt Innovation: How Roadmaps for Development Help Your Company Succeed

4 May

Brad Jayakody outlines the roadmap to maintaining a healthy balance between technical debt and team growth. However, just as balancing acts go it is important to have a strong foundation.

Alignment
Leadership
Impact
Roadmap
Tech Debt
Career Path
Brad Jayakody

Brad Jayakody

Director of Engineering at Motorway

You're a great engineer.
Become a great engineering leader.

Plato (platohq.com) is the world's biggest mentorship platform for engineering managers & product managers. We've curated a community of mentors who are the tech industry's best engineering & product leaders from companies like Facebook, Lyft, Slack, Airbnb, Gusto, and more.