Does a product manager need to be technical?

For me, this is one of the more paradoxical question in product management. The long and short answers for this question are not the same. The short answer to the question is “No”. The primary responsibility of a product manager is to understand and evaluate the market needs to define the product strategy and vision. Moreover, the job also includes communicating this vision to the engineering and other technical teams. It is not necessary for the product manager to get in to nitty-gritty of technical development.

However, a deep technical understanding of the different product and technologies can only be beneficial for a software product manager. But this does not require having a software engineering background. You can acquire that kind of understanding by being continuously curious about the small details, reading about technologies, frameworks, their pros and cons. Working on technical products and having as much meaningful communication as possible with the engineers that are building the product makes it easier for non technical folks to hone their technical skills.

Another benefit to having some technical knowledge as a product manager is that it will give you a more accurate view into what will be required to build your product according to the strategic plan you have set out in your product roadmap. If you understand how your product works only from a marketing or user standpoint, a lot of that product’s development will always remain a mystery to you—a black box—and you’ll have to rely on your engineers or coders to advise you on how long each component will take to build, how many people will be needed, what budget you’ll need to secure, etc. This means you’ll often need to consult with your company’s technical teams before you can realistically craft your product roadmap or figure out how many and which epics or features you can expect to deliver in a given timeframe.