"Once you end up as a product manager, your growth and success rely on many different factors. As a product leader, you are wearing multiple hats — design, engineering, legal, sales, marketing, and so much more."

"One is expected to constantly pick up information in these areas and use their learnings to help solve complex problems."

"What ends up being one of the essential necessities as a product manager is one’s curiosity and desire to learn. As a product manager, your growth ends up being so much determined by your love of learning."

"Being able to pick up new skills and knowledge helps one become better at defining new product ideas and collaborating more effectively with their cross-functional peers in the organization."

"Learning = (Knowledge * Skills) + Ability"

"1. Knowledge (Acquire)"

"Knowledge can be considered as any information that we acquire. It is considered the theoretical understanding of a concept or a subject."

"2. Skills (Practice)"

"Skills are the application of the theoretical knowledge that we acquire. Skill is the capability of performing a task that we develop through practice, training, or experience. It is the ability to apply our knowledge."

"3. Ability"

"There is a very fine line, but a line nonetheless, between abilities and skills. The main differentiator is that abilities are innate."

"Ability, though important, isn’t the key factor when it comes to learning and growing as a product manager. What ends making the biggest difference is how we deal with new knowledge and pick up new skills."

"Quadrant 1"

"High Knowledge; Low Skills"

"As a product manager, under this quadrant, one tends to accrue and build skills across different areas of product management."

"Organizations tend to look to such product managers to drive and execute major initiatives across the company."

"Quadrant 2"

"High Knowledge; High Skills"

"Quadrant 4"

"Low Knowledge; High Skills"

"A PM in this quadrant tends to gain expertise in their respective domain and develops a good eye for building products specific to that domain."

"This is the sweet spot for learning. Being able to pick up new skills while also spending time to build one’s knowledge is definitely the best way to ensure growth as a product manager."

"Quadrant 3"

"Low Knowledge; Low Skills"

"Ideally, as a product manager, one should not be staying within this quadrant. But, hopefully, given the nature of the role, you are always learning at the job in some way or the other."