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i.e. what distinguishes the best from the very good?

Follow-up: Who are some 1% product managers?

The attributes most frequently mentioned include communication skills, vision, thinking big

and team leadership.

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The top 10% of product managers excel at a few of these things. The top 1% excel at mostor all of them:

Think big - A 1% PM's thinking won't be constrained by the resources availableto them today or today's market environment. They'll describe large disruptiveopportunities, and develop concrete plans for how to take advantage of them.Communicate - A 1% PM can make a case that is impossible to refute or ignore.They'll use data appropriately, when available, but they'll also tap into otherbiases, beliefs, and triggers that can convince the powers that be to part withheadcount, money, or other resources and then get out of the way.Simplify - A 1% PM knows how to get 80% of the value out of any feature orproject with 20% of the effort. They do so repeatedly, launching more andachieving compounding effects for the product or business.Prioritize - A 1% PM knows how to sequence projects. They balance quick winsvs. platform investments appropriately. They balance offense and defenseprojects appropriately. Offense projects are ones that grow the business. Defenseprojects are ones that protect and remove drag on the business (operations,reducing technical debt, fixing bugs, etc.).Forecast and measure - A 1% PM is able to forecast the approximate benefit ofa project, and can do so efficiently by applying past experience and leveraging

Ian McAllister, Director at Amazon218.7k Views • Upvoted by Kartik Murthy, I was a Product Manager at Google and now I'm a

Product Manager at Quora. • Jackie Bavaro, Co-Author of http://CrackingThePmInterview.com.

Product Manager at Asana. Previously at Google & Mi… • John Peltier, B2B SaaS Product

Management Leader

Answer featured in Inc and 1 more.

Ian is a Most Viewed Writer in Product Management.

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