Bill Ringle’s Post

💻 I am a firm believer that Product Managers need to know tech, coding, and best practices. You don’t necessarily need to code for the job, however: 👉 It will give you more confidence when bridging tech to sales, marketing, and other stakeholders. 👉 Better brainstorming: when reducing scope or making some trade-offs is the only way forward, your business knowledge with some tech expertise will help your teams make the less risky solution for the business. 👉 Innovation: having ideas is nice, validating them is what makes a great Product Manager. Knowing tech will provide you with tools to experiment and test before even bringing it to engineers. 👉 Competitive edge: You will be able to analyze competitors in-depth and compare them to what you currently have in your company. Especially in this age where technology has been more accessible regardless if you are a big tech or a smaller player. 👉 Empathy: When you don’t know a subject, it feels mystical, magical, or too simplistic. Understand what your team is going through but feel how they are feeling at least once. It will foster respect and stronger collaboration. ⁉️ Curious how to start? Leave a comment and I’ll share how I have learned tech and programming over the years.

Being a product manager is all about understanding user needs, crafting a vision, and bringing it to life. But in today's tech-driven world, a secret weapon separates good PMs from great ones: 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻. You don't need to have a CS degree. But having a basic grasp of technical concepts goes a long way. Think about it: Imagine discussing your product roadmap with engineers, understanding how APIs connect different parts of the product, or how data is organized in the database bridges the communication gap. This fluency also helps you assess feasibility early on. Ever had a brilliant product idea that hit a technical wall later? Technical understanding allows you to brainstorm solutions with your engineering team, or even adapt your idea based on real-world constraints. #productmanagement #engineering

Classic difference between a Product Manager and a Software Engineer: Product Manager: Always turns on the video during Teams calls, ready to talk vision, strategy, and (probably) their latest coffee of the day! Software Engineer: Almost never turns the video on during calls, ready to tackle code, bugs, and (maybe) yesterday's hoodie! Different styles, same goal. Working together to build and ship something great! #ProductManagement #SoftwareEngineering

Do Product Managers Need a Technical Background? It’s a common question, and the answer isn't black and white. Here’s why: - Not a Must-Have: While a technical background can help, it's not a requirement for being a great product manager. Your core skills should be in understanding customer needs, prioritizing features, and driving product vision. - Cross-Functional Communication: What's more important is being able to communicate effectively with technical teams. You should understand the language of developers enough to make informed decisions. - Problem-Solving Over Coding: A product manager’s role is to solve customer problems and ensure the product meets market needs, not necessarily to code or design. - Learn the Basics: If you're non-technical, learning basic tech concepts can be helpful. However, your primary focus should remain on delivering customer value. Technical or not, the key is to bridge the gap between business and tech, ensuring the product's success. #productmanagement #techskills #product #productmanager

How Linear build product 🛠️: - No product managers, just a head of product. PM duties are distributed across engineering and design. - No durable cross-functional teams. Teams assemble around a project and disperse once the project is done. - No metrics-based goals. Just a North Star company-level metric goal. - No A/B tests. Decisions are based on taste and opinions. - Job candidates go through a paid work trial. They join the team for 1-5 days and work on a real project with the team. - The team is completely remote. And always has been. Linear also has more cash in the bank than they’ve ever raised in VC funding, they’ve been profitable for 2+ years (before it was cool), [...] and their CEO, Karri Saarinen, is a designer (who rarely gives interviews). Thanks to Lenny Rachitsky for sharing in his newsletter. Being a Linear customer for a while now - the way you build is just as important as what you build. #product #growth

Advocating for Feasible Solutions as a Technical Product Manager One of the key advantages of having a technical background as a Product Manager is the ability to bridge the gap between business and engineering teams. This means understanding both the "𝘄𝗵𝘆" from the business side and the "𝗵𝗼𝘄" from the technical side. By leveraging my knowledge of technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I'm able to: ✅ Propose solutions that are technically feasible. ✅ Anticipate potential roadblocks early in the process. ✅ Reduce the back-and-forth between business stakeholders and engineers. ✅ Ensure the product vision is aligned with technical constraints, saving valuable time and resources. In practice, this leads to faster decision-making, smoother execution, and ultimately, more successful product launches. 🚀 Whether you're managing a complex feature or navigating a tight deadline, being able to 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 means you're not just creating a product – you're creating one that can be built efficiently and with minimal friction. I'm always open to 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 and 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 to build innovative products that solve real-world problems. Feel free to 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 and 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 if you’re passionate about bringing ideas to life efficiently! #day2of14 #LinkedInpowerup #14dayslinkedInpowerupchallengewithAlice #Tuesdaythoughts #ProductManagement #TechnicalProductManager #FeasibleSolutions #Engineering #BusinessAlignment #Careergrowth #Careergoals

Is a "technical" background REQUIRED to succeed as a product manager? No. But is it good-to-have? Yes. I have one. And I think so because it enables three things for me: 1. Understanding of technology 2. Meaningful conversations 3. Effective tradeoffs 1. 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 Not understanding technology will slow you down. Without a basic understanding of technology, you will find yourself in situations where you are unable to follow technical discussions or contribute meaningfully to them. In such situations, you will need to pre-read, learn new things, put extra effort to make the discussions meaningful. And that is what will slow you down. A basic understanding of technology helps you maintain the momentum (instead of slowing it down.) 2. 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 To collaborate well with engineers, it is important to have meaningful conversations with them. A technology background helps you have meaningful conversations with engineers--where both parties understand each other's point of view. 3. 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗳𝗳𝘀 As a product manager, you will be required to make a lot of tradeoffs and decisions. Some of them will be purely technical. And in such situations a technical background makes it easier and quicker. Your background will help you understand the true impact of your decisions. With that said, I know enough people without a technical background who are more successful than me. Technical background/knowledge helps in the beginning. But once you've been a PM for a long time (even without a technical background), the experience will compensate for the lack of a technical background -- Do you have a technical background? If yes, how has it helped you? If not, has it ever slowed you down?

🚀 A Lesson in Communication: Talking with Engineers as a New Product Manager 🚀 When I first stepped into the role of Associate Product Manager, one of the biggest adjustments was learning to work with engineers. My first few interactions? Let’s just say they were…awkward! I was new, eager, and didn’t quite understand the technical language they used. Every meeting felt like I was playing catch-up. But then, one of the engineers pulled me aside and said something that changed everything: “Ask questions. We’d rather explain than assume.” That little bit of encouragement helped me realize that it’s okay to not know everything upfront. I started asking questions like: “Could you walk me through that one more time?” “What would the trade-offs be here?” “How do you see this impacting users?” Each time, their explanations gave me a clearer picture of the technical side and allowed me to share insights from the product and user perspectives that we both needed. Slowly, I stopped worrying about “sounding dumb” and focused on bridging our knowledge to make better decisions. Working closely with engineers taught me that product development is a two-way street. They taught me to appreciate the constraints and possibilities of tech, and I like to think I helped them see things from a user’s lens. To all the engineers out there: thank you for your patience and openness. And to all the new PMs—don’t be afraid to ask those “basic” questions. They’re the start of great collaboration. 🌟 #ProductManagement #Engineering #ProductDevelopment #Communication #Collaboration

Linear has an interesting product build methodology...and I have some hot takes: "No PdM. PdM duties are distributed across engineering and design" = Team members are taking on roles/responsibilities outside their core craft/value driver "Teams assemble then disperse" = Increased context switching to ramp up and down into new initiatives "No metrics based goals" = No accountability "Decisions are based on taste and opinions" = The product lacks data-based decision making and might not be serving genuine user needs "Paid work trial. Job candidates join a real project for 1-5 days" = A test on output vs outcomes "Completely remote" = Wonderful! More cash in the bank = I couldn't find Linear on Glassdoor and their job openings do not list salary bands. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ All of my statements are speculative, but Linear's product development methodology shouldn't be considered as a silver bullet formula. Every team, product and culture is different and your product build methodology likely reflects that uniqueness.

Great product ideas are like diamonds in the rough – valuable, but needing refinement. A product manager MUST be aware of the technical feasibility of their vision. We all dream up amazing features, some even driven by market demand. But sometimes, those dreams hit a technical wall. The key isn't becoming a coding wizard, but building a strong bridge with your engineering team. Regularly discuss your ideas with them. Explore feasibility, identify roadblocks, and brainstorm alternatives. Collaboration is key to turning those brilliant ideas into polished products. #ProductManagement #ProjectManagement #Product #ProductOwner #Tech # Technology