What is a Product Manager?

Somebody asked me how to become a Product Manager. Here's what I wrote them.

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Hi Jon,

Those are a lot of questions. Let me try to simplify it.

I think a Product Manager is a person who is responsible for determining
what a product should be and how it should evolve. This is a design role
and a more senior role in a product team. 

To manage product, you should:

* Know how to design a product
* Understand the demand for the product, what people are trying to do, how they
  buy and consume
* Understand the technical side of implementation well enough that you can
  properly estimate and manage developers
* Understand well how the business makes money and how your decisions affect
  the bottom line

Therefore I would suggest starting with product design, and pay as much
attention as you can to the biz and implementation sides as you go.
Ultimately a product manager is an integrator -- somebody who pulls a lot
of different things together.

Hope that's helpful.

Ryan