You Said Product Managers Need These 4 Skills — Right Now

"Thanks for making me look like a superhero!" We love seeing messages like these from Aha! customers. Sharing what we know and helping you build better products is what continues to motivate us. It is one of the reasons we offer certification through Aha! Academy and host live tutorials. In both, we get the opportunity to go deep on product management essentials — from setting strategy and prioritizing features to building dynamic roadmaps that clearly communicate your plans.

Mastering the skills of product management takes time, persistence, and optimism. For the right people, it is a dream role.

Our public and private certification classes are also where we get to hear directly from so many of you. The details of your jobs may differ but your aspirations are similar — to lead your product and product team towards greatness. It is a big responsibility — one that comes without a "finish line." There is always more to learn and new ways to achieve.

So we asked a few of our Aha! Academy instructors to tell us what they have heard from you lately. Here are four areas in which you and your team want to hone your skills, including our guidance for achieving this using Aha! Roadmaps:

Rallying the product team around shared goals and processes

You know that collaboration is necessary to make meaningful progress towards your product goals. But you shared it can be challenging to get everyone on the product team moving in the same direction. Many of you are focused on developing shared terminology, processes, and frameworks within your Aha! account so you can drive more consistency across teams.

"I have spent my entire career building software for enterprise customers. I saw firsthand the importance of having strong champions and administrators to successfully drive the adoption of enterprise tools for their organizations. It is so important to get your entire product team on board with a new tool and using it in lockstep — be sure you are taking advantage of workspace settings and customizations." — Mark Eaves

Showcasing what you are working on (and why)

You told us you want to bring more clarity to product decisions — including how you communicate what you are working towards to the broader organization. This means improving how you talk about prioritization decisions and trade-offs, as well as sharing relevant roadmap changes that impact internal teams.

"There is a wealth of data you can capture and visualize in your Aha! account. Product value scores, Gantt charts, custom dashboards — use all of these to show the 'why' behind your decisions. You can also deliver tailored roadmap views for any audience — without having to duplicate the details." — Perry Hurtt

Strengthening your reporting skills

Meaningful reports matter to you. At the same time, you are flooded with data and want to get better at paying attention to the right signals — so you can build reports that will bring value to your teammates and support business growth.

"The reporting engine in Aha! is super powerful — it can also be a little intimidating when you are just getting started. Before building a report, make sure you have linked your strategic goals and initiatives to downstream features or user stories. This is what creates the 'red thread of strategy' throughout your product plans. Then if you really want to get crafty, try adding calculation columns to take your reports to the next level." — Madeleine Black

Mentoring others in your organization

You want to give back. As you gain expertise, you said you want to make time to support new and aspiring product managers. This can take many forms — from onboarding new hires to having 1:1 conversations about career growth.

"It is incredibly rewarding to talk with other product managers about their careers, daily practices, and workflows. I advise folks to document and share their notes so teammates can learn from one another." — Deb Gay

We are here to help you keep moving from strength to strength — so you can create even more value for your customers, colleagues, and companies.

If any of these areas resonate with you, we would love to hear from you. And of course we would be thrilled to see you at a future Aha! Academy course too. Everyone is welcome — invite your colleagues and we will see you there.

What are you waiting for? Reserve your spot in the next class before it fills up.