【观点】9 Skills You Need To Test When Hiring a Product Manager---雇佣一个产品经理时需要测试的九个技能

Product managers are in demand in virtually every industry. Over the next few years, 43% of companies intend to hire more product managers. These workers provide essential skills in bringing a product to market. 

几乎每个行业都需要产品经理。在未来几年，43%的公司打算雇佣更多的产品经理。这些工作者提供了将产品推向市场的基本技能。

Product managers are often seen as the Swiss Army knives of the professional world. These workers need a combination of hard and soft skills to be successful. Product management requires analytical skills and technical skills in addition to emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. 

产品经理通常被视为专业领域的瑞士军刀。这些员工需要硬技能和软技能的结合才能获得成功。产品管理除了情商和人际交往能力外，还需要分析能力和技术技能。

Finding the right product manager for your team isn’t always straightforward. Many of the skills that make product managers successful can’t easily be quantified on a resume. As a result, recruiters need a way to test for the strategic thinking, hard skills, and communication skills that a product manager must have to perform well. 

为你的团队找到合适的产品经理并不总是那么简单。许多让产品经理成功的技能不容易在简历上量化。因此，招聘人员需要一种方法来测试产品经理必须具备的战略思维、硬技能和沟通技巧。

As you think about growing your product management team, here are some important capabilities to look for when you hire, as well as the tools and techniques that can help you verify these skills. 

当您考虑发展您的产品管理团队时，这里有一些重要的能力，以及可以帮助您验证这些技能的工具和技术。

What does a product manager do?

产品经理做什么？

A product manager oversees the development of products for the brand. This person is responsible for coordinating between internal teams to create and bring the product to market. The product manager is the person who makes sure the product meets the needs of customers, as well as the objectives of the company making it.

产品经理负责监督品牌产品的开发。这个人负责内部团队之间的协调，以创建并将产品推向市场。产品经理是确保产品满足客户需求的人，也是确保产品满足公司目标的人。

The day-to-day responsibilities of a product manager are extensive and can vary from company to company. Generally speaking, a product manager develops a product roadmap, detailing the activities that need to happen from product design and development to product launches and maintenance.

产品经理的日常职责是广泛的，可能因公司而异。一般来说，产品经理会制定产品路线图，详细说明从产品设计和开发到产品发布和维护所需的活动。

The product manager may be responsible for: 

产品经理可能负责：

Market research: Conducting research to understand the target customer, the customer’s pain points, the demand for the product, and the competitive landscape. 

市场调研：通过调研了解目标客户、客户痛点、产品需求以及竞争格局。

Coordinating between teams: Working with the product team, including members of the engineering team, development team, marketing team, sales team, and external stakeholders. 

团队间协调：与产品团队合作，包括工程团队、开发团队、市场团队、销售团队和外部利益相关者。

Managing the product life cycle: Setting deadlines, overseeing the development process, and facilitating a successful product launch. 

管理产品生命周期：设定最后期限，监督开发过程，促进产品成功发布。

Owning the product strategy: Keeping tabs on market trends and customer needs to adjust marketing strategies and product features before launch.

掌握产品战略：在产品发布前，密切关注市场趋势和客户需求，调整营销战略和产品特征。

Bringing the product to market: Working with the marketing and sales teams to ensure a successful product launch and improve customer satisfaction. 

将产品推向市场：与市场和销售团队合作，确保产品成功推出，提高客户满意度。

The job description can change depending on the size of your company, the type of product that your brand delivers, and the needs of your customers. In some companies, the role of the product manager ends once the product has been launched. At others, product managers continue to work on the product to ensure good customer service and to develop future iterations of the software or good. 

职位描述可以根据公司的规模、品牌所提供的产品类型以及客户的需求而变化。在一些公司，产品经理的角色在产品推出后就结束了。在其他公司，产品经理继续在产品上工作，以确保良好的客户服务，并开发软件或产品的未来迭代。

When you consider what product management skills are important, consider how the product manager role fits into the overall operations of your company. What teams will this person work with, and what skills can you add to make life easier for existing internal and external stakeholders? 

当你考虑什么产品管理技能是重要的时，考虑一下产品经理这个角色是如何融入公司的整体运营的。这个人将与哪些团队合作，您可以添加哪些技能以使现有的内部和外部涉众的生活更轻松？

What to look for in a product manager?

产品经理应该具备哪些品质？

There are three things to consider when hiring a project manager: hard skills (e.g., core competencies), soft skills like emotional intelligence, and company fit. 

在招聘产品经理时，有三件事需要考虑：硬技能（如核心竞争力），软技能（如情商），以及与公司的契合度。

Hard skills for a product manager can vary widely. It helps to have some technical knowledge of the product to guide product ideas and work well with the technical team. The product manager is unlikely to have to create technical product specs, for instance, but they should be able to understand the technical aspects of the product features, as well as be able to conduct data analysis, have a basic understanding of the product’s development, and perform market research. 

产品经理的硬技能千差万别。拥有一些产品的技术知识有助于指导产品理念，并与技术团队良好合作。例如，产品经理不太可能必须创建技术产品规格，但他们应该能够理解产品功能的技术方面，以及能够进行数据分析，对产品开发有基本的了解，并进行市场研究。

Soft skills are integral to this role. In particular, relationship management skills and high EQ are vital to successful product management. This includes things like active listening, leadership skills, good delegation skills, and more. 

软技能是这个角色不可或缺的一部分。特别是，关系管理技巧和高情商对成功的产品管理至关重要。这包括积极倾听、领导能力、良好的委派能力等等。

While these skills may differ depending on your industry, Harvard Business Review has identified core competencies that every product manager must have. These competencies include the ability to: 

虽然这些技能可能因行业而异，但《哈佛商业评论》已经确定了每个产品经理必须具备的核心能力。这些能力包括：

• Conduct customer interviews and user testing

• 进行客户访谈和用户测试

• Run design sprints

• 进行设计冲刺

• Prioritization and roadmap planning

• 优先级和路线图规划

• Allocate resources effectively

• 有效分配资源

• Perform market assessments

• 进行市场评估

• Translate business-to-technical requirements, and vice versa

• 将业务需求转换为技术需求，反之亦然

• Price and revenue modeling

• 价格和收益建模

• Define and track success metrics

• 定义并跟踪成功指标

Finally, the third consideration when hiring a product manager is whether or not this person is a good fit for your company. When we talk about fit, we don’t mean culture fit, which can lead to discrimination and unconscious bias penetrating the hiring process. We prefer “organizational fit”. Organizational fit describes how well a candidate meshes with your organization. Factors at play here include the candidate’s values and working style, as well as the organization’s overall values. 

最后，在招聘产品经理时要考虑的第三个问题是这个人是否适合你的公司。当我们谈论适合度时，我们并不是指文化适合度，这可能会导致歧视和无意识的偏见渗透到招聘过程中。我们更喜欢“组织契合度”。组织契合度是指候选人与组织的契合度。在这里起作用的因素包括候选人的价值观和工作方式，以及组织的整体价值观。

Organizational fit is, fortunately, something you can find using the same methods you would use to test product management skills. But first, let’s cover what hard and soft skills are needed for product management on a deeper level. 

幸运的是，你可以使用测试产品管理技能的相同方法来找到组织匹配度。但首先，让我们从更深层次上了解一下产品管理所需的硬技能和软技能。

What soft skills do you need as a product manager?

作为产品经理，你需要什么样的软技能？

Soft skills are the personal traits people have in relation to their work, also known as interpersonal skills. As a traffic director overseeing the product from inception to sale, these soft skills are critical to successful product management. 

软技能是指人们在工作中所拥有的个人特质，也被称为人际交往能力。作为一名从开始到销售全程监督产品的流量总监，这些软技能对于成功的产品管理至关重要。

Interpersonal skills and relationship management

人际交往技巧和关系管理

Product managers spend a lot of time working with other teams to make sure deadlines, specifications, and budgets are met. As a result, they need advanced relationship management skills to keep all stakeholders invested in the product and engaged with the process. 

产品经理花费大量时间与其他团队合作，以确保截止日期、规格和预算得到满足。因此，他们需要高级的关系管理技能来保持所有涉众对产品的投资并参与到过程中。

Communication skills are part of this area of expertise. Product managers are often the link between the development team, the engineering team, the sales team, and the customer support team. The communication skills product managers bring to the table prevent these teams from working in siloes. 

沟通技巧是这个专业领域的一部分。产品经理通常是开发团队、工程团队、销售团队和客户支持团队之间的纽带。产品经理带来的沟通技巧可以防止这些团队在孤岛中工作。

Prioritization skills

优先级技能

At large enterprises, product teams often work on many products at the same time, with multiple product life cycles going on at once. Even managing one product life cycle requires focus and prioritization. The product manager must organize stakeholders along a product road map, synchronizing deadlines and deliverables in a logical, organized way. Strong time management is also a soft skill that comes into play in the product management role. 

在大型企业中，产品团队经常同时处理多个产品，多个产品生命周期同时进行。即使管理一个产品生命周期也需要专注和优先级。产品经理必须按照产品路线图组织利益相关者，以合乎逻辑的、有组织的方式同步截止日期和可交付成果。强大的时间管理也是一项软技能，在产品管理角色中发挥作用。

Strategic thinking

战略性思考

Product managers need to exercise critical thinking at every stage of product development. A product manager is often the go-to person for questions or product feedback. They are expected to remain objective and assess the product on behalf of the potential end user and the overall business objectives. This often requires market research and integrating customer feedback into the product vision and roadmap. 

产品经理需要在产品开发的每个阶段都锻炼批判性思维。产品经理通常是解决问题或提供产品反馈的人。他们应该保持客观，并代表潜在的最终用户和整体业务目标评估产品。这通常需要市场调查，并将客户反馈整合到产品愿景和路线图中。

Leadership skills

领导力技能

A successful product manager is able to exercise leadership skills to rally internal teams toward a product’s success. They can delegate tasks, as well as perform what are considered“hard” manager skills — such as managing a budget or overseeing agile methodology. Management skills and leadership skills often require high emotional intelligence, making sure every person involved in each stage of product development is successful. 

一个成功的产品经理能够运用领导技能，团结内部团队，实现产品的成功。他们可以委派任务，也可以执行所谓的“硬”管理技能——比如管理预算或监督敏捷方法。管理技能和领导技能通常需要高情商，以确保参与产品开发每个阶段的每个人都能成功。

Flexibility

灵活性

Finally, even the best-laid plans go awry — especially in product development. The ability to adapt, think strategically, and adjust when there is an obstacle is an incredibly important product manager skill. Prioritization skills also come in handy here: when the schedule gets a little off track, can your product manager keep the team focused? 

最后，即使是最完美的计划也会出错——尤其是在产品开发方面。当遇到障碍时，适应、战略思考和调整的能力是一项非常重要的产品经理技能。优先级划分技巧在这里也很有用:当日程安排有点偏离轨道时，你的产品经理能让团队保持专注吗?

What technical skills do you need as a product manager?

作为一名产品经理，你需要什么样的技术技能？

Product management skills also can be technical in nature. These so-called “hard skills” provide the foundation for successful product managers to perform their best work. 

产品管理技能在本质上也可以是技术性的。这些所谓的“硬技能”为成功的产品经理提供了最佳工作表现的基础。 

Research skills

研究技能

Market research is a key task for product managers. The product manager should have extensive knowledge of the competitive landscape; if they don’t have experience in your industry, the ability to research it is key. Conducting research can help the product manager understand your existing users, come up with new product ideas, and work with internal teams to make sure they have the right resources to be successful. With extensive market research, senior product managers can also be a part of product vision and ideation steps. 

市场调研是产品经理的一项关键任务。产品经理应该对竞争环境有广泛的了解；如果他们在你的行业没有经验，那么研究的能力是关键。进行研究可以帮助产品经理了解现有用户，提出新的产品想法，并与内部团队合作，以确保他们拥有成功所需的正确资源。通过广泛的市场研究，高级产品经理也可以成为产品愿景和构思步骤的一部分。

Business basics

商业基础

Hard skills like managing a budget, time management, and resource allocation are part of product management. A product manager often needs to know basic financial skills: such as the difference between revenue and profit, budgeting, cash flow, and how to read a profit-and-loss (P&L) statement. Client management also forms part of this role. 

管理预算、时间管理和资源分配等硬技能是产品管理的一部分。产品经理通常需要了解基本的财务技能:例如收入和利润之间的差异、预算、现金流以及如何阅读损益表。客户管理也是这个角色的一部分。

Analytical skills

分析能力

Product managers need to conduct data analysis to make educated product decisions. Once market research has been completed, the product manager needs to extract insights from the data in order to inform the entire product roadmap. Can the product manager identify customer needs, and use their analytical skills to ensure the product is solving those pain points?

产品经理需要进行数据分析来做出明智的产品决策。一旦市场调查完成，产品经理需要从数据中提取见解，以便为整个产品路线图提供信息。产品经理能否识别客户需求，并使用他们的分析技能来确保产品能够解决这些痛点？

Technical skills

技术技能

Finally, some product managers benefit from some basic knowledge of technical skills — such as design, coding languages, or even sales. Google, for instance, requires its product managers to pass a technical skills test regardless of what product they’ll work on. A senior product manager in particular can benefit from technical skills that help them understand what the engineering team or development team is really thinking. 

最后，一些产品经理受益于一些基本的技术技能知识——比如设计、编码语言，甚至销售。例如，谷歌要求其产品经理通过技术技能测试，无论他们将从事什么产品。高级产品经理尤其可以从技术技能中受益，这些技能可以帮助他们了解工程团队或开发团队的真正想法。