Before becoming a Product Manager, you need to understand what is product management. My favorite definition is "CEO of the product"
Manager title is delusional when it comes to the role of a PM. Basically you have no rights or direct authority on anyone. You don't manage people, you manage the product. So how can you become one if you are pursuing a PM role ?
Be a good translator, You Have to become a good connector between different departments. It involves translating things from one to another.
A good problem solver, understand the user problems and come up with the best possible solution.
A great visionary, Always a vision for your product and define strategies to meet the vision.
A good document writer, each requirements should be recorded in detail with user stories and user personas and document every detail related to your product in the most organised way.
Excellent Planner, You always have unlimited wants and limited resources.you need to prioritize the requirements and satisfy the users without deviating from the ultimate product vision. This might require deep customer insights, competitive landscape, industry research etc
Moral emotional intelligence, you might have to follow a deadline, so you need to always keep a watch of time. Also, There will be friction and troubles between different departments, you need to Resolve all the differences and convince all of them To get stuff done.
Tester, Keep testing, you gotta make sure the product that is going out goes with the best quality. There will be a QA/QC team to test your product, but your product is your baby, test yourself before rolling it out to production. Always good to have some extra pair of eyes.
Phenomenal presenter, A product manager is always considered as the biggest expert of the product. You have to work on different demos and attend conferences to showcase your product. Also work with marketing team to create contents. Presentation skills are vital for this role. Also as a PM you need to convey your strategies ,visions, ideas etc to stakeholders, it's hard to convey your message unless you present it properly.
Analysis, you should great in analysis. You get lot of information from the users as they use your product. You need to track this data and understand the user behavior and the features they are most interested in and least interested in.
In simple terms always ask these questions what, why , how and when, phew that's a lot isn't it?
I hope you are able to get a broad sense of what a PM does, it's dope role to work in.
Did you know most of the CEO's out there were product managers before If you don't believe me ask CEO of Google!