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What makes a great product manager?

A great product manager is a storyteller. They’re customer-centric. A great listener. Empathetic. Curious. A fantastic communicator. They unleash creativity.

Those are a few of the attributes that successful product managers need to succeed, according to ServiceRocket product managers. As one PM said, their goal is to “deliver the best product value to the customer, fulfill the company’s business objectives and turn vision into reality.”

It’s a balancing act, one that might look easy, but isn’t, says Aidin Mahmoodi. He discovered that in his first role as a support engineer, where he worked on the frontline and often heard from frustrated customers.

“I always told myself, ‘If I was in charge of this app, I would make it so my customers wouldn’t feel so frustrated.’ Little did I know what it takes to manage a product!”

As Product Lead, Aidin guides his product management team as both manager and mentor. His team’s robust product portfolio makes him proud.  

Clockwise from top left: Aidin Mahmoodi, Koh Ping Ng, Wilmer Medina,
Beatriz Messina, Amen Teng and Joyce Teoh

That portfolio includes Publisher for Confluence Cloud to Salesforce, a tool that creates a single source of truth for knowledge content; Security & Encryption, which allows users to securely store and share sensitive information in Confluence; and Sentiment Analysis for JSM, an ML/AI app that provides customer sentiment and emotion analysis in Jira Service Management.

Whatever the product, it starts with a customer-centric philosophy, says Aidin.

“Product managers at ServiceRocket strive to understand people, processes and relationships. Their goal is to extract the essence of what people need (not necessarily what they ask for) and be able to read between the lines and interpret their insights into simple, understandable requirements.”

Much like Aidin, Amen Teng, Senior Product Manager, began his career as a software engineer.

“I participated in a hackathon at another company. The regional director was very impressed with my presentation. He advised me to change career paths. I’m glad I did.”

In addition to his product management know-how, Amen is known for his entertaining product pitches. He managed to make this pitch for a cool real-time notification app for support engineers.

This is Amen’s third year at ServiceRocket. What keeps him here? “The company culture and an environment that empowers product managers to grow and learn from each other.”

ServiceRocket’s inclusive global culture attracted one of the team’s newest recruits, Wilmer Medina, Senior Product Manager.

“The culture here is amazing. You’re able to work with people from all over the world. If you’re willing to learn, this is a good place to be because of our #ShareTheKnowledge  value.”

Wilmer relishes the multiple challenges of product management.

“I like to find creative solutions to complex problems. I do that by building consensus with cross-functional teams and looking for opportunities for improvement by analyzing data, product metrics and KPIs.”

Data analysis is a lot like solving puzzles, he says. “You know there’s at least one path to success. But you need to analyze a lot of data and run experiments so that path shows up.”

Joyce Teoh thinks of data in much the same way. “You make the best bet using the data, research and information you have.”

As Product Manager for Confluence Cloud Apps, Joyce has a goal: to make everyday document management a great experience.

“I help customers and partners maximize the value they get from our partner’s platforms and unleash their creativity.”

Joyce says empathy enables her and others on the team to bring more value to ServiceRocket’s customers and partners. “Pairing empathy with data analysis makes us valuable team players.”

Product managers must wear many hats, says Senior Product Manager Koh Ping Ng, who’s known as KP. “You apply what you already know and get the opportunity to continuously learn new things. The growth never stops.”

KP sees storytelling as key to product management.

“A great product manager is one who can tell the story of a product. If you can’t talk about your product, you probably don’t know your product well.”

Her favorite tool for mapping out ideas is Miro. “It helps me to visualize, communicate, and collaborate with my team.”

In her spare time, KP enjoys testing her agility in the boxing ring. “I particularly like this drill, the sumbagay, as my coach calls it. You mirror your partner and try to match their speed, intensity, and skill level.” Check out her focus in the video below (in the foreground, KP is in the green shirt).

Outside the ring, KP finds product management is “definitely a group effort. You learn from each other.”

Beatriz Messina, Product Manager, Services, agrees. “Working collaboratively with a group of diverse stakeholders, internal teams, customers and colleagues is essential.”

As the newest member of the team, Beatriz (or Betty) knew she found the right company early on in the recruiting process.  

“From the very first interaction I had with ServiceRocket’s Talent team, and in my interviews with Azwandi and Peter Marquez (ServiceRocket’s CCO), I knew that I found the right company.”

Betty has found her daily interactions with colleagues highly rewarding.  

“We challenge each other, brainstorm and work toward solving a problem together. It’s a true iterative process where we can follow Agile frameworks of building, learning, and measuring, and then doing it again.”

Visionary, analyst, storyteller, consensus builder, relationship manager…

The list of skills required of great product managers is long. So is the amount of information they handle. That sometimes makes the job overwhelming.

“Experience definitely helps you to pick the right approach for the specific situation,” says Amen. “One shortcut is to always check with your colleagues to avoid tunnel vision.”

Having each other’s backs. It’s a mission statement that these Rocketeers put into action every day.

As part of our robust global family, Rocketeers enjoy a flexible work model, a comprehensive compensation program, health benefits, wellness programs, monthly stipends and more. Our amazing community thrives on stable confidence and innovation. Join us.

Great products start with listening.

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