Prof. Rahul Abhyankar, director at ICPM Programs at the Institute of Product Leadership, offers insights to this year’s graduating class on the theme ‘Product Management – Is it more of a mindset than a skill set?.’

Prof. Rahul Abhyankar, director at ICPM Programs at the Institute of Product Leadership, offers insights to this year’s graduating class on the theme ‘Product Management – Is it more of a mindset than a skill set?.’

Product Management has many definitions but most experts will agree that it’s essentially the art and science of delivering delightful solutions to real market problems and doing it rather predictably.

A product manager (PM) is supposed to get customer insights; validate a proposed solution; develop a business/monetization model; develop specifications/requirements for teams to build a delighting solution and help launch and figure out the go-tomarket strategy.

So, how is PM different from an entrepreneur? Here is my take on how PMs need slightly different skills than startup entrepreneurs.

Leadership Skills: Conflict management, stakeholder management, influence building. PMs have to influence multiple stakeholders for decision making and leadership skills are more critical.

Internal vs. External: PMs have to spend more time internal to the company compared to an entrepreneur who might be completely customer/market focused. Funded start-ups have boards to answer to but time investments are lower.

Plumber vs. Oil Digger: As a PM you have potentially lots of resources that one needs to be aware of and know how to leverage (existing customers, brand, sales force, budgets etc.). So the key thing here is to ‘connect’ the right pipes in the organization so oil falls in your bucket as opposed to dig for oil (find early adopters, investors etc.)

Risk Appetite: Emotionally a PM might be less attached to the business as personal wealth is not at stake (reputation is on the line though!). A good PM should have the right passion for the product and a good entrepreneur knows when to quit and pivot based on market feedback.

While there are differences in skill sets, the end goal for both seems to be aligned on delivering value.