I didn’t always want to be a Product Manager. Back when I was a backend developer at a mid-size SaaS company, I was deep in code—living that sprint-to-sprint life. But what started bothering me wasn’t the codebase. It was the communication breakdowns between engineering, marketing, sales, and design. Features were built that nobody wanted. Sales made promises we couldn’t fulfill. Marketing had no idea what was shipping next. So I started speaking up. And, somewhat accidentally, I became a PM. Years in, here’s what I’ve realized: product management is not about mastering technical depth or business vision—it’s about knowing enough of both to connect the dots.
Where the Tug-of-War Begins
Let’s face it: most PMs enter the role from either a technical or business background. And that origin story shapes your instincts.
- Come from engineering? You might geek out on APIs and jump into sprint planning—but struggle to explain product tradeoffs to the C-suite.
- Come from sales or marketing? You might ace stakeholder presentations—but freeze when engineers start talking about latency or edge cases.
The challenge (and the magic) lies in the balance.
You Don’t Need to Be a Developer—But You Do Need to Speak the Language
You’re not expected to write production-ready code. But you are expected to understand and respect what goes into it.
That means:
- Knowing why one feature takes 3 days and another takes 3 weeks.
- Recognizing when “just adding a button” really means weeks of backend refactoring.
One thing that helped me early on? Sitting with my dev team weekly to walk through the sprint board—not just updates, but why certain tasks were complex.
That helped me:
- Spot patterns.
- Stop asking for miracles.
- Translate technical roadblocks into language business teams understood.
Translation builds trust.
Business Sense: Your North Star
Being technical is great, but don’t lose sight of business value. I’ve seen PMs obsess over performance tweaks users won’t notice—while ignoring feature requests that could close big deals.
To stay grounded in value, I:
- Sit in on sales calls monthly. Yes, it’s awkward. But the unfiltered feedback is priceless.
- Learn our business model inside out—what stage we’re in (growth, profitability, retention) and how my product choices influence that journey.
If you don’t understand the business, your roadmap becomes a wishlist—not a strategy.
Adopt the Bridge Builder Mindset
I now think of PMs as translators.
We translate business needs into technical actions—and technical constraints into business decisions.
You don’t need to be fluent in both worlds, but you must speak both dialects.
“You’re the bridge—and bridges need to be strong on both ends.”
Real Talk: It Gets Messy
Every decision has trade-offs. Someone’s going to be disappointed.
- Engineers may be annoyed you’re pushing deadlines.
- Marketing may not get that flashy feature they wanted.
- Users might not love your MVP.
That’s normal.
What matters is that you understand why the tradeoff was made—and that you can explain it to your team, your stakeholders, and yourself.
What Helped Me Along the Way
Here are four things that truly moved the needle in my PM journey:
1. Shadowing Engineers
Watching a lead engineer refactor a payments module taught me more about technical debt than any book ever could.
2. Weekend “Mini MBAs”
I carved out time to learn finance, positioning, and GTM strategy. Knowing how products live in the market shaped my decisions internally.
3. Asking “Stupid” Questions
Early embarrassment > late disaster. Ask now. Save the team later.
4. Writing Things Down
Docs, bullet points, Confluence pages—it builds clarity and trust. People stop seeing you as a black box.
A Quick Note to New PMs
If you’re new to product, you’re probably overwhelmed.
That’s okay. There is no one right background for PMs. Whether you lean technical or business, lean in with curiosity.
- Ask how things work.
- Ask why they matter.
- Ask what happens if we don’t act.
Some days, you’ll feel like the product CEO. Others, like a glorified note-taker. That’s part of the job.
Read more about tech blogs . To know more about and to work with industry experts visit internboot.com .
Wrapping Up: You’re Not the Expert. You’re the Integrator.
Balancing technical and business skills isn’t about perfection.
It’s about learning enough to:
- Respect both domains
- Connect the dots between them
- Make confident, context-aware decisions
You’re not expected to have all the answers.
You’re expected to ask the right questions—and bring people together to find the answers that matter.
That’s the real craft of product management.
