A product manager is ready for leadership not just by mastering their domain, but by demonstrating three key traits: understanding how all parts of the platform connect, being effective in customer-facing roles (sales, roadmap talks), and proactively building cross-team relationships.

The core job of a Product Manager is not writing specs or talking to press; it's a leadership role. Success means getting a product to market that wins. This requires influencing engineering, marketing, and sales without any formal authority, making it the ultimate training ground for real leadership.

In the news industry, many product managers are former journalists who transitioned through "bridge roles." Positions like social media strategist or audience engagement manager provide critical exposure to data and metrics, creating a natural pipeline into product.

The skills developed as an intelligence officer—understanding mission goals, risks, operator needs, and coordinating across diverse teams—directly translate to the cross-functional responsibilities of a product manager who must align sales, marketing, and engineering.

Bending Spoons' product lead argues that the ideal PM background is either entrepreneurial, which teaches focus on impactful work, or deeply analytical, which fosters an understanding of root causes. These two paths provide the core skills needed for product leadership.

Storytelling is often mislabeled as a "soft skill" or natural talent. In reality, it's a structured discipline that can be learned and perfected through training and deliberate practice, just like any other professional capability.

Contrary to the popular belief that it's always detrimental, for product managers, context switching is a core strength. Fluidly moving between customer, engineering, and marketing conversations is essential for integrating diverse perspectives to bring a product to life.

The most critical skill gaps for product managers are not technical but relational and financial. The inability to make a compelling business case to diverse audiences and to move from a cost-only to a full profit-and-loss mindset are primary reasons for failure in the role.

As AI automates 'hard' product management tasks like data synthesis and spec writing, the role’s value will shift. PMs who thrive will be those who master uniquely human skills like stakeholder influence, creative problem-solving, and critical thinking, which AI cannot yet replicate.