One of the heavily paid jobs these days is a software engineer. If you know to code, then congratulations! You would be getting multiple job calls or maybe even holding multiple job offers.
That’s the scenario of the job market for a person who knows how to code!
But should a product manager know how to code?
A simple short answer would be “Coding is not mandatory but it is good to have skill for a product manager”.
That was the short answer to the question “Should a product manager know how to code?”
But if you are among the ones who want to know the reason behind the short answer and then decide whether you should learn to code or not then continue reading.
The reason why a Product Manager should or should not know to code
First of all – Let us understand what a product manager is!
A product manager is a person who is responsible for the success of the product (and failure too). He handles a lot of things like market research, user experience design, prioritizing product backlog, product launch, etc.
I have described the product management role in quite a detail here – What is Product Management?
A product manager interacts with a lot of stakeholders including the engineers. A product manager does not code but works closely with the ones who code. Hence, a basic understanding of coding can be of great help.
That will help the product manager understand what the developers speak and interact in a better manner.
Also, when one codes then one is trying to write small pieces of code that gradually become an application or a website.
The product manager does the same thing while solving a big problem. He first breaks the problem into smaller parts and tries to fix those small sets of bigger problems by prioritizing.
Hence, knowing how to code can help the product manager in coming to the approach or mindset of solving problems.
How my coding background is helping me in product roles?
I come from a computer science background. I opted for computer science in my class 11 by dropping 2 subjects – Biology and Hindi language.
I started learning to code then and later in my graduation, I learned to code again.
Having learned to code in various languages, help me develop the logic and the mindset! This mindset helps me in approaching a problem as I mentioned above.
Coding has really helped me in developing this problem-solving mindset that helped me in most of my projects so far.
During my MBA, I had an internship where I was supposed to help the global supply chain team of a really big MNC to automate their tasks. The team was highly dependent on Excel sheets and the only option available to ease their tasks was Excel Macros.
Though the Excel UI allows you to record macros but doesn’t allow you to handle complex scenarios. You need to make your hands dirty for it by actually coding the macros using VB script.
I was not knowing to code in VB. I could learn and do this project successfully within 2 months.
Why? Because I knew how to code in other languages and I could quickly learn VB.
It was not a coding internship. It was my MBA’s summer internship. But coding helped!
I used to work for a startup as a Product Manager. There were limited designers in that company and they used to stay busy. At times, while documenting I had to also put the screenshot of how the new design would look like or how the new feature would look like!
I could do this on my own. I used to open the existing web app on the browser. Inspect the code and make the changes while inspecting. Take a screenshot and paste it.
Well, does this sounds too technical for you? Google and learn to inspect a website today. You can see the source code in the browser and try to play around with it (if you know basic HTML)
While other fellow product managers used to spend time on Figma or wait for designers to get free, I never had that dependency. Plus, the designs look more realistic.
There are many such situations where coding has helped me.
Does this mean a non-coder cannot become a product manager? Nothing like that!
Can one succeed in product management without any coding background?
Definitely, you can succeed in product management even without a coding background. I mentioned it in the very beginning and I am reiterating it again that coding is not mandatory for becoming a product manager or succeeding in a product management role.
In fact, I know many product managers who don’t even have a computer science degree or background.
Product management lies at the center of technology, user experience, and business. A single individual cannot be the best in all these 3 domains.
You can have any degree and yet excel in product management.
Final Words
If you have time & interest, then please learn to code. You don’t have to become an expert. Just the basics.
Harvard University’s CS50 Computer Science for business professionals is a great free online course that you can take. You can read my detailed review of the course and get to understand the course in a much better way here – My Harvard’s CS50 Experience
Even if you don’t have an interest in learning to code, that is completely understandable. You won’t be left behind!
Reiterating again that knowing to code is an added advantage that a product manager has but is not mandatory.
For any further questions, please feel to connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram. Would be really happy to connect, help and talk about anything that you want!
I hope this article helped you.
Please do share it with aspiring product managers or whomever you feel should know this.