Most Important Skills for a Head of Product as an Independent Consultant
Addy, a Head of Product, emphasizes three crucial skills: "listening" to understand customer and team needs to prioritize feature development, "collaboration" across all teams (engineering, design, sales, etc.) to build the best products, and effective "communication" tailored to each audience—verbally, visually, or in writing. This multifaceted approach highlights the importance of interpersonal skills and inclusive teamwork in product management.
Communication, Collaboration, Problem-Solving, Leadership, Active Listening
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Addy Spiller
Head of Product
Independent Consultant
UC Berkeley
MBA from NYU Stern School of Business
Economics
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing), Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Scholarship Recipient
Video Highlights
1. Effective listening skills are crucial for understanding customer needs and prioritizing features that address pain points.
2. Collaboration is essential for building successful products; it involves bringing together diverse teams (engineering, design, sales, etc.) and ensuring everyone understands the product vision.
3. Strong communication skills, encompassing verbal, visual, and written formats, are vital for conveying information effectively to different audiences.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
A lot of different skills are important, but I think there are three that I really try to tell my team to focus on and enhance as they grow in their role.
First, listening. You have to listen to customers, your team members, and your leadership team. You need to be able to hear and understand what drives and impacts each of them.
Then, you can figure out how to prioritize and build features that address each end user's biggest pain points. This includes both your external, end customer and your internal customer, all while ensuring your organization's business priorities are met.
Secondly, collaboration is super critical. You can't build best-in-class digital products on your own as a product manager.
You have to bring the broader team along, not just your product team, but your engineering, design, operations, sales, and legal teams. The entire team needs to be bought in and understand your vision.
Making sure they understand what you're trying to accomplish is critical, as that's how you build the best products.
So, listening, collaboration, and thirdly, communication. I don't just mean verbally communicating, but communicating in a way that the other person will understand.
Sometimes that's verbal, other times visual, and sometimes written. It's about understanding what people need and delivering it in a way they'll most effectively understand.