What are some skills needed to work as product manager at microsoft?

Business & Management
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#1

Working as a product manager at Microsoft is a dream for many MBA graduates. However, many candidates are not aware of the skillsets needed by the company for the particular role.

The following are some skillsets needed by a candidate to crack the role:

  • Research Skills: If you are put in an early-stage product role, where the focus is primarily on establishing a good research model, research skills - research techniques, preparing detailed surveys, interviewing abilities - will come in handy. A product can only prosper if it accurately assesses the customer’s needs.

  • Technical skills: Although you will most likely have coders for support during your internship, it will benefit if you are comfortable speaking in their language and understand technological constraints and potential. SQL knowledge, for example, helps work with and refine datasets.

  • Wireframing: Again, having a UX designer on hand would be ideal, but if one is not available, one should generate basic wireframes. During an internship, one can pick up design concepts and etiquette, but knowing how to use tools like Figma, Balsamiq, and even PowerPoint comes in helpful.

  • Presentation skills: At the end of the day, a PM’s job is to persuade everyone to agree with their vision of what/how a product should function/appear, which you will not do if you do not know how to tell a decent story. This is not just a PowerPoint presentation; it is also about crafting a compelling story for your project/proposal.

  • Delegation skills: Delegating amongst teams and going through iterative improvement loops will be significant success factors for internships. In this aspect, having good, strong relationships with all stakeholders is critical.