Toolkit: Product Manager Competencies Self-Assessment

Do you know the different competencies of successful Product Managers?

– Business Acumen and Enterprise Knowledge
– Building Relationships
– Influencing, Collaborating With, and Leading yOthers
– Outside-In, Customer-Driven, Design Thinking, Perspective
– Strategic Planning and Thinking
– Outcome-Driven Orientation
– Communication
– Technical Knowledge and Proficiency

Based on the research “Product Manager Role Description for Digital Business”, we have developed a toolkit to help Application leaders to develop Product managers and drive improvements in product management practices with these core competencies.   Application leaders can use this Toolkit to collaboratively identify areas to improve and plan specific activities, provide training and reading, and help drive improvements over time.

Toolkit: Product Manager Competencies Self-Assessment
Published: 31 January 2019 ID: G00376000
Analyst(s): Bill Swanton | Deacon D.K Wan

Application leaders moving from projects to products often have to nurture people from other roles to become product managers. Aspiring product managers can use this Toolkit to assess themselves against core competencies, identify areas for improvement and create action plans for development.

– Review the research “Product Manager Role Description for Digital Business.”
– Become familiar with the Competency definitions in the above research note
– Take the self-assessment
– Define a development plan
– Work with Gartner analysts on ways to improve, periodically reassess and update the development plan.

This Toolkit is used to assess a product manager’s proficiency in key competencies. This is best done as an individual exercise by the product managers and then reviewed with their leader to create a development plan.