Analysis Vs Synthesis
The 2 skillsets that a product manager needs a lot are Analysis and Synthesis.
I am a business analyst who turned into a product manager. It is easier for me to be reliant on my analysis skills since that is what I am trained as a business analyst.
However, what is also equally important is the synthesis skills.
How are they different
Analysis refers to the ability to break down a problem into constituents and start attacking them. This helps the product manager a lot when there is enough feedback from users and all the product manager has to do is just carry it out. There is no need for prioritisation from the side of the product manager since the user’s preference would clearly give that information as well.
This works well when the product is an already released product and it is not difficult to understand what is needed and why it is needed.
Synthesis, on the other hand, refers to the ability to piece together multiple pieces of information to understand the bigger picture.
Synthesis involves hypothesis testing. This is key to a product manager mostly during the initial phases when the product is being introduced or tested and during a phase when the product hits a bottleneck.
How can we balance out both the skills
At any point of time, the product manager needs both the skills. The key lies in identifying when to do analysis and when to do synthesis.
My rule of thumb is as follows:
When you have enough information, analyse the situation and include it in the product plan.
When you do not have enough information, form an hypothesis, test it and based on the outcome decide on the future option.
Hypothesis can be tested either as Minimum Viable product or as a pivot , as the situation might dictate.