Case Studies in Product Turnarounds

What Really Makes a Great PM (Hint: It’s Not What You Think)**

One afternoon, a junior PM on our team nervously asked me:

“Hey… what do you think actually makes someone a great product manager?”

They had read the blogs. The job descriptions. The frameworks.
They knew RICE, NPS, MVP, API.
But deep down, they were still wondering:

“Am I cut out for this?”

I’ve asked that question too.

PM is one of the only jobs where:

You don’t code… but you need to understand code.
You don’t design… but you critique and ship design.
You don’t sell… but revenue depends on you.
You don’t manage people… but you lead them.

So what does make a great PM?

Let me tell you not with a checklist, but with lived moments.

📌 1. They Care Deeply About the User’s Problem

Not just the metrics.
Not just the roadmap.
They care about real people struggling with real pain.

A great PM will sit through 20 customer interviews, just to find the one insight that changes the entire direction.

They ask:

“What frustrates them?”
“Why do they do it this way?”
“What would make this better 10x better?”

PMs who start with empathy never lose direction. They lead with purpose, not ego.

🧩 2. They See Patterns Where Others See Chaos

In a mess of tickets, complaints, ideas, and data great PMs find signal.

They connect the dots:

The bug report from support
The drop in funnel completion
That one user who churned with a long email

And say:

“This isn’t five problems. This is one problem manifesting in five ways.”

They bring clarity to complexity.
That’s their superpower.

🧠 3. They Learn Fast, Then Help Others Catch Up

Great PMs don’t need to know everything. But they get curious fast.

They’ll sit with an engineer to learn how the backend works
They’ll join a sales call to understand buyer objections
They’ll read docs, dig into dashboards, even sketch ugly wireframes

And then, they translate that learning for others helping the whole team move faster and smarter.

Good PMs learn fast. Great PMs make learning contagious.

🗣️ 4. They Communicate with Clarity and Courage

It’s not just what they say.
It’s how they say it.

They write tight problem statements
They speak up when priorities are wrong
They say “no” without making people feel small
They align teams without playing politics

They don’t hide behind jargon. They speak like humans. And they listen better than they talk.

⚖️ 5. They Balance Today’s Fire with Tomorrow’s Vision

Yes, they clear blockers.
Yes, they track burndown charts.
Yes, they write specs and fight bugs and answer exec pings.

But great PMs don’t lose the thread. They keep asking:

Where are we going?
Is this still the right bet?
What do we learn next?

They zoom out without drifting off.
They balance the urgent with the essential.

🔁 6. They Get It Wrong And Still Show Up

Every great PM I know has shipped something that flopped.
They’ve been wrong in front of teams. In front of leadership. In front of users.

But they reflect.
They own it.
They grow.

Great PMs don’t get it right every time.
But they keep getting better and help others do the same.

🙌 Final Thoughts: Great PMs Make Others Great

At the end of the day, the best product managers I’ve worked with weren’t the loudest or flashiest.
They didn’t drop jargon bombs or obsess over frameworks.

They made:

Users feel heard
Designers feel inspired
Engineers feel trusted
Leaders feel confident
Teams feel proud

And maybe that’s the real answer to, “What makes a great PM?”

They make everyone around them better without needing to take the credit.

product.guru