"the most important of all is, certainly, the one that illustrates this article, empathy."

"Empathy is the ability someone has to walk in someone else’s shoes in order to understand her aspirations, motivations, needs, and problems. This characteristic is important to understand customers and users of the product, to know how they relate to the product, and what problem they expect to be solved, or what needs they want to fulfill."

"However, empathy must not be used only with the customer or the user. The product manager must use it also when relating with other areas of the company and must understand the impact the product has on their work as well."

"The second most important characteristic is communication."

"The product manager must also be good in written communication (e-mail, blog, documentation, chats, social networks, etc.) and be able to distinguish about what is the most appropriate way of communication in a given moment, to a given audience and using a specific media"

"The third most important characteristic is time management. The day-by-day of a product manager can get quickly filled with tasks and he needs to be able to notice and distinguish what is urgent from what is important to guarantee that he will always have time to know more about the customer and the user of his product."

"As a product manager, he must focus his time on:"

"How many clients and users did you talk to this week?"

"Do you have a long-term strategy and view for your product?"

"How is it going and what are the last changes in the competitive scenario of your product?"

"Which insights did you have about your product this week?"

"New technologies: the product manager must be aware of new technologies to know how they can impact her product."

"Business skills: every product exists to fulfill the user needs while reaching the company goals for the product. The product manager needs to understand what are these company goals, and needs to be sure that the product is evolving toward these goals."

"Keen curiosity: the product manager must be able to learn fast in order to have insights and make judgments on the product."

"Product theme: last but not least, the product manager must know the theme of the product."