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Learn to design & code— as a new or aspiring product manager
In part four of this series, I want to focus on reasons why learning to design and code is valuable for new or aspiring product managers. This is particularly drawn from my experiences as a startup product manager. Here is the previous post from this series. Learning to design and code will help you empathize with your teams better, and with a well-rounded skillset, it will accelerate your growth as a PM. You are learning how to build.
“I believe that product instincts can be trained, especially when you develop from a foundation of strength” — Linda Zhang (Source).
Why You Should Learn to Design & Code as a PM
1. PMs can become more well-rounded and can improve their “talent stack.”
New or aspiring PMs can focus on growing their fundamental knowledge about designing and developing products. Developing your talent stack is an enormous investment you can make in your PM career. It’s a continuous journey of improvement. You focus on a few core areas — instead of going deep in one area.
Everyone is capable of furthering their skillsets and becoming a successful PM.
Here are a few important takeaways from Linda Zhang’s blog post: “How to develop your talent stack.”
- “Develop a variety of skills that make you unique.”
- “You don’t need to be the top 1% to be in the top 1%. By crafting a unique concoction of useful skills, you enter a league of your own.”
- “If you already spike on one of the skills [below], pursuing the other half will pay dividends. And when you triple up, you’ll run circles. By becoming more interdisciplinary, you position yourself to connect the dots invisible to others.”
The skills that are most paradoxical and rarely found in the same person include:
1. Design instincts x business principles
2. Design instincts x data analysis
3. Storytelling x coding
4. Storytelling x data analysis
