Building a career in product management can feel like throwing darts in the dark—guessing, hoping, and scrolling through an endless sea of AI-generated roadmaps and the same old “top tips.” And somehow, the path still feels just as confusing. Frustrating, right?
That’s exactly why real stories matter. No theory overload, just honest, hard-earned lessons from someone who’s been there.
In this series, Sergii Gudkov, Railsware’s product lead with 15+ years in software development and marketing, shares the necessary skills, mistakes and wins made in product management journey.
Spoiler: There’s no perfect formula. However, there’s you—your skills, mindset and willingness to grow. Whether you’re just starting out or already leading a product, the learning never stops. And honestly, that’s what makes this job so damn exciting.
This article opens our series for product managers (or, as we call them for short, PdMs) with various backgrounds and levels of experience. We’ll break down the day-to-day skills that matter and share some stories from our journey. Step by step, we’ll figure out what it really takes to grow from an entry-level contributor to a senior PM and, eventually a product lead.
So let’s start from the basics – and now off to Sergii.
What Makes a Product Manager?
How would you explain who the product manager is? Well, maybe let’s start with who they aren’t.
- First off, a PdM is not just a manager who oversees people.
If you’re picturing yourself leading a team from day one, think again. For a long time—especially in the beginning—you’ll be an individual contributor (IC), rolling up your sleeves and getting things done yourself.
- Managers, on the other hand, achieve their goals by guiding others.
This difference matters. While some PdMs eventually move into managers roles, it’s not a must. In fact, plenty of successful PdMs stay in IC roles because that’s what they enjoy most. Climbing the career ladder isn’t the only way to grow.
- There’s no universal definition of a PdM. And that’s what makes this field so interesting and weird at the same time.
Ask ten companies what a product manager does, and you’ll probably get eleven different answers. Even within the same business, people often don’t agree on the exact role description. It all depends on:
- the company’s size;
- its industry;
- location;
- growth stage, etc.
Being a PdM at a fast-moving startup is an entirely different game than working at a mature enterprise.
So, when things feel a bit unclear, I recommend using the following scheme to define your role and understand what’s expected of you in these positions:
On average, transitioning between these roles takes about three years per step. But here’s the catch: Moving beyond Senior PdM into leadership roles—like Group PdM, Product Lead, or Principal PdM—can take much longer.
Let’s be real: Time alone won’t cut it. The jump from an individual contributor (IC) to a manager role isn’t just about how many years you’ve worked—it’s about developing your skills, shifting your mindset, and learning on the fly.
Here’s a quick peek at the core skills you’ll need to carry in mind:
Skills You Need as a Product Manager
If you’re reading this, you’re already familiar with the distinction between soft and hard skills, but I like to break it down a little differently: high-level skills and day-to-day practices.
The last means the small actions you take every day that shape your large-scale, more strategic abilities. Take communication, for example—that’s a high-level skill. But writing follow-up emails is a day-to-day practice that helps you improve it.
Why does this matter?
Through teaching and mentoring product managers, I’ve noticed a common challenge: high-level skills are too broad to improve directly. People often get stuck because they’re unsure what needs work or how to progress.
Tip: Break down those big skills into clear, measurable practices—small, actionable steps that lead to real improvement. And it’s not only about you! Spot specific weaknesses (or blocks for improvements) of others to share correct feedback. It may significantly help you build an outstanding team around you.
In my mind, product management can be boiled down to a few primary skills for PdMs:
- Read minds: to know your customers;
- Bewitch money: to build a business, not a charity;
- Foresee the future: to make the right decisions;
- Practice the voice: to manage stakeholders.
Let’s take a closer look at them.
Read Minds to Know Your Customers
As product managers, we build products for people. For that, we need to understand their needs, problems, desires, and frustrations. It’s not only about crunching numbers, though insights from analytics can be valuable.
While quantitative research can show where issues exist, it doesn’t tell us why. That’s where customer interviews help uncover the real problems behind the numbers.
Imagine your team spends a year fixing something that wasn’t actually an issue. In the end, it turns out to be a waste of time, effort, and resources. That’s why correctly identifying a problem is just as valuable as solving it.
It may sound complicated, but you don’t need to be an expert in R or Python to perform an AAA-class analysis. What matters more is your ability to ask the right questions—to dig deeper, challenge assumptions, and truly get into the mindset of your customers.
But here’s the thing—no universal “best” skill set exists. What works best depends on your team, project, and specific situation. The tricky part? No one knows your exact situation better than you (except maybe your therapist or mentor).
In upcoming articles, I’ll break down the key useful practices needed at different levels of a product management career to master this skill.
Bewitch money to build a business, not charity
You’ve probably heard the phrase “be customer-obsessed” a million times. It’s everywhere. And to be fair, it makes sense—focusing on customers is way better than making decisions based on one person’s gut feeling or the loudest voice in the room (a.k.a. the HiPPO—Highest Paid Person’s Opinion).
But can you be customer-obsessed and still be focused on making money?
The simple answer is yes. I know a founder who lives by the “customer obsession” mantra. Yet, he always makes decisions based on revenue-related metrics. At first, I thought this was hypocrisy—the ideal example from a textbook. However, the more I observed the founder, the clearer it became.
To explain, we need psychology. We all have beliefs that shape how we think:
- Conscious beliefs – What we actively think and say we believe.
- Unconscious beliefs – The deep, automatic assumptions that actually drive our decisions.
For this founder, “Customer obsession is key” was a conscious belief. But the real trick was in the unconscious belief:
If people aren’t willing to pay for something, it doesn’t bring real value.
That’s why, in his mind, “bringing more value to customers” and “making more revenue” were actually the same thing.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not here to change your beliefs. Or am I?:)
I just want to make sure that coins, revenue, and money are always somewhere in your product-thinking process. Here’s another way to look at it:
- A company has to make money to keep delivering value to customers
- Bankrupt businesses don’t help anyone.
Think about it—money isn’t just some cold business metric. It’s the fuel that lets you keep solving problems, building great products, and making an impact. Without it, even the best ideas stay just that—ideas.
Foresee the future to make the right decisions
If there’s one thing that stays constant throughout your entire product management career, it’s making decisions.
Whether it’s scoping a feature, prioritizing the backlog, or setting a strategic direction, decisions are everywhere. But let’s be honest—can we even call it decision-making when we follow the RICE framework and take the top-priority task into work? You rank, you sort, you pick the next thing. It’s not a big deal. Everything is clear, and everyone agrees with it. I would not call it a decision.
What’s the decision then?
Real decisions happen when dealing with uncertainty, conflicting opinions, and incomplete data. When stakeholders pull in different directions, your gut is telling you something else entirely.
I remember a time when we decided to display user names on our website as a form of social proof. Legally, it was fine—just a first name, nothing personally identifiable. But then, the backlash hit. Some customers were unhappy—significantly less than a third, if you want numbers. At the same time, our key metric shot up after running an A/B test.
The leadership team was split:
- We should follow the target metric increase if it doesn’t break a law
- We should care about reputation, even if it slows down our growth
This is a real decision – when there’s no “right” answer.
One of the lessons learned: most of the time, you’re not the one actually making the decision. In fact, in many cases, there isn’t a single person who has to decide.
Our job is to facilitate decisions. We gather insights, conduct research, analyze data, list pros and cons, run meetings, and present different viewpoints. We make sure the decision happens.
However, even if the final call isn’t yours, you should have a clear stance—a personal decision, a starting point. Because, in the end, decision-making often turns into stakeholder persuasion. You need to know how to promote your vision and serve the decision-making process.
There are plenty of frameworks to help with this. When you’re just starting out, they’re incredibly useful. And as decisions get more complex, good frameworks become even more valuable. (Don’t worry, we’ll get into those later.)
But here’s the last thing you need to know: There are only two types of decisions—those that were made, and those that weren’t.
The best product managers I’ve worked with don’t just make good decisions. They make them at the right speed. Move too fast, and you risk missing critical information. Move too slowly, and opportunities disappear.
At the end of the day, the best decision is the one that gets made.
Practice voice to manage stakeholders
Let’s be honest—not every product manager loves this part. Some avoid it, while others master it and build their entire career on it. And here’s why: you’re not on an island. You can’t do everything alone. No matter how good your ideas are, you need other people to make them happen.
Call it stakeholder management if you want to sound fancy, but at its core, it’s about building relationships and getting things done through people—even when they don’t report to you.
I once led the launch of a new product, working with over 70 people across different teams. And I wasn’t their manager. As a product manager, you don’t “manage” the legal, marketing, or engineering teams. But you do need them all to succeed.
So, how do you convince people to prioritize your project? I wish I could tell you it’s easy. However, it’s one of the hardest parts of the job:
- Some people think your project is a waste of resources.
- Some genuinely want to help but don’t have time.
- Others are about to go on vacation.
- And many more excuses…
That’s why you need to master blackmail, sales, negotiation, making deals and leadership.
A crucial tip about communication? What you say isn’t always what people hear—and vice versa. Few phrases are more frustrating than “That’s not what I meant” or “That’s not what I wanted to say.” My best approach is a simple comprehension check: “Do I understand you correctly…?” Then, I repeat what I understood and let the other person clarify. Follow-up emails and meeting notes serve the same purpose—they ensure alignment and prevent misunderstandings.
Another key aspect of communication is knowing what to say, when to do it, and who should say it. Think back to childhood—you instinctively knew the right time to ask your mom for candy or when to convince your younger sibling to stand for you. The higher your position, the more weight your words carry.
Here is an excellent example of communication rules for feedback. The exceptional art is to deliver bad news. Yes, to me, it’s more of an art than a skill.
Note a tip, and let’s move on
Growth in product management isn’t a straight path. However, you can (and should) master it. My vision of the learning trajectory in this and the following articles will help you see how you should be evolving and adapting to new challenges, opportunities and changes.
For now, please note somewhere an approach to growing skills in product management that I would recommend focusing on and working on more detail in the next parts:
- Define high-level skills that are critical for success.
- Break them down into day-to-day practices (small, specific skills).
- Find a solution for each of these small skills—a way to practice and improve it. This could be through online courses, books, mentors, or hands-on experience.
