Thanks for sharing your comment, Kim. I find a person in charge of an analogue, hardware-based product benefits from most of the skills discussed in the article. To which extent business acumen will be beneficial depends on the type of product: Revenue-generating products, especially those that directly create revenue, require solid business skills including the ability to generate and adapt a business model and to create a financial forecast. Hope this helps.

Thanks for your feedback Emily. You may find my post on using the Strategy Canvas helpful in order to ensure that your product is properly differentiated.

Hi Rahul, Great questions that are difficult to answer briefly. I generally recommend that the person in charge of the product is also responsible for its vision and strategy. This is particularly helpful when bigger changes are happening to your product, for example, when it is brand-new or young, or when you extend its life cycle, as this minimises the risk that the strategic and tactical product decisions aren’t aligned. To ensure management’s buy-in and understanding, I suggest a collaborative strategising approach in my book Strategize, where the management sponsor participates in strategy creation and review workshops. Does this help?

Thanks for your feedback Srinath. Glad that you liked the post.

Hi Aaron, Thanks for your feedback and question. I consider an understanding of software technology, like object orientation, design patterns, machine learning frameworks and algorithms, and development practices such as test-first, refactoring, and continuous integration and delivery as vertical skills: they are applicable to many digital products. Having an understanding of the technologies that are specific to your product is a vertical skill, for instance, Objective-C, Xcode, Cocoa, and UIKit for an iOS app.

If it’s worthwhile for you to increase your technical knowledge depends on the role you play (or want to play) and the product you look after, as I discuss in the post “Do Product Owners Need Technical Skills?“.

Does this help?

Interesting blog post. I notice that you categorise vertical skills as product related skills/knowledge. This is very restricted to the area you work in and generally won’t transfer between sectors or companies very well.

I was wondering what are your thoughts on technical skills for product owners? Would you consider this a vertical skill set or more horizontal?

I’m at an early stage of my product management career and I’m coming across a lot of job roles that I think I would be capable for which require a BA. As I started my career doing an apprenticeship I actually don’t have a degree. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to study towards a technical degree in Computer Science?