A good product manager understands the market, products, product lines, and intense (market) competition, and role-plays and performs responsibilities based on their strong knowledge base and confidence. A good product manager is the CEO of the product. Good product managers perform their duties at their best and are measured by the success of the product. They are responsible for the right product, the right timing, and all the relevant details. Good product managers have information about the company, revenue base, competition, and more, and they are responsible for developing and executing a successful plan without any excuses.
Bad product managers have many excuses. For example, underfunded, technical managers are idiots, Microsoft has 10 times as many engineers working on the same product, I'm overloaded, and I don't get direct and adequate guidance. Barksdale doesn't make these excuses, nor does the product CEO.
A good product manager is not occupied by all kinds of other organizations working together to deliver the right product, at the right time. They don't consume all the product team's time, they don't formulate and manage various functions, they don't become part of the product team; instead, they manage the product team. Technical teams don't use good product managers as marketing resources. A good product manager is the technical manager's marketing counterpart. Good product managers clearly define goals, what to do (requirements), and manage what to deliver. And poor product managers feel their best when they point out the "how". Good product managers communicate clearly about their work in writing and even verbally. A good product manager doesn't give random instructions. However, good product managers gather information informally (not rigidly).
Good product managers create add-ons, FAQs, newsletters, white papers to refer to. Bad product managers complain that they get dizzy by responding to questions from the sales team all day long. Good product managers expect serious product defects and build real and reliable solutions. And poor product managers track defects all day long. Good product managers document important issues (competitive tricks, solid architectural choices, tough product decisions, market attacks, or benefits). And poor product managers verbally state their opinions and lament that similar problems don’t happen. When poor product managers fail, they point out that they predicted failure.
A good product manager keeps the team focused on the revenue and customer level. Bad product managers keep the team focused on the number of features Microsoft is building. A good product manager defines a good product that can be violently executed. Bad product managers define "good products" as those that don't perform or allow technologists to build the behavior they want (eg, solve the hardest problems).
A good product manager thinks about delivering something of high value to the market in the release plan, and gaining market share and revenue goals after the release. And poor product managers are confused about the difference between delivering value, competing features, pricing, and ubiquity. Good product managers break down problems, while bad product managers bundle all problems into one big puzzle.
Good product managers think about the stories they want the media to write. And poor product managers think with the media to cover every feature, and think about ensuring (description) accuracy in terms of real technology. Good product managers ask questions from the media, while bad product managers answer any questions from the media. Good product managers assume that the media and analysts are smart. Bad product managers assume that the media and analysts are laypeople -- (thinking they don't understand the difference between "push" and "proposed push").
Good product managers err on the side of "'explicitly' versus 'explaining the obvious'". Bad product managers never explain the obvious. Good product managers define their work and success, while poor product managers often need to be told what to do.
Good product managers send their status reports in a timely manner every week because they are disciplined. And poor product managers forget to deliver on time because they don't value discipline.
Ben Horowitz's immortal masterpiece was born in 1996, but the age of the time does not affect its current warning effect. At that time, Ben, the manager of Netscape's product management department, did not introduce the role and responsibilities of a product manager in a false way, but intuitively compared a good product manager and a bad product manager.