Things you need to get good at to be that top 1% PM.
The PMs are supposed to move mountains. They are expected to do everything in their capacity to achieve that. One day you are working on designs, then digging through data, and following up with customers, other days you writing PRDs, and driving stand-ups. The list is endless.
You cannot get good at everything. The following 3 traits will help you get good at your role.
Communicate
Your manager asks you “when are we shipping this?”
If your answer starts with a background, followed by a problem statement, and finally ends with a vague answer. You get the gist.
Alternatively, force yourself to communicate too much with too little.
Master the art of communicating based on your audience.
Seniors look for timelines, peers look for stories. The same pitch doesn't work on both. While seniors looking for short answers, your group of engineers and designers looking for deep-intent explanations.
Visuals work for me. I don't provide any walk-through without a design. It brings the entire audience’s attention to that small rectangular box. Helps me command their attention.
Prioritise
You can only ship some things at a time. Unfortunately, everyone approaching you would want to be the first one in the queue. You are answerable to everyone.
If you try to achieve and fulfil everyone’s time, you will burn yourself, and you will burn out the engineers and designers too. You will lose their respect in the long run, and the whole ship sinks.
Brutally prioritise. You might take some heat in the short term, but this is the only good long-term strategy that will help you sustain and scale.
Execute
What separates product managers from consultants sometimes is you forecast and then you execute and then you measure and validate and that helps you build your instincts. Just obviously the core execution of just shipping and doing what you said you do.
Learn more about technical trade-offs, not just product and customer trade-offs. That will help you simplify and get more yield out of your resources. If you are not spending time with your engineers, you will not be able to guarantee execution.