A general understanding of data

The ability to accurately analyze and interpret data is a crucial skill to have, even though you don't have to be an excellent mathematician or statistician. In a series of interviews with product managers, economist and data scientist Luciano Pesci found that many of them make judgments based on intuition rather than data-driven insights. He also discovered that although many of the product managers he questioned felt empowered when using data, they were frequently unsure about data interpretation and needed to learn how to do it for themself.

The ability to evaluate and interpret data is even more important for SaaS product managers because these products typically produce massive amounts of data. It's crucial that you, as a SaaS product manager, adopt a data-driven mindset and set the pace for the digital transformation in this situation. Product managers who worked for companies where data was an essential and deeply ingrained component of their decision-making processes reported being the happiest, according to Pesci's research. Of course, there are times when you should go with your instinct, but you need proof for that!

Understanding of design and user experience

While all the abilities are important, product managers in the SaaS industry should have a solid grasp of UX design, for example. SaaS businesses must offer an unmatched customer experience in order to succeed. The success of the business is determined by the UX, thus having a foundational understanding of UX and fusing it with, say, the expertise of your UX researcher will position you for success.

Strategic thinking

This is related to having a solid understanding of the market and the competition. You, as the product manager, must use strategic thinking to define the company's vision and then work toward it with attainable targets. 

Industry insights and KPIs 

The capacity to foresee events accurately, analyze critically and logically, reason inductively and deductively, make decisions quickly, ask the correct questions at the right time, delegate effectively, and create and stick to reasonable goals are all important for strategic planning. Knowledge of market and industry trends, as well as the ability to set and monitor key KPIs like customer acquisition costs, customer conversion rate, daily active users, feature usage, user churn, Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction, and customer lifetime value, are essential for product management.

To find that crucial product-market fit, product managers must have well-defined use cases, distinct consumer personas, and a strong understanding of data analytics. It's simple to think that the sales and customer success teams should be the ones who interact directly with customers, but product managers stand to learn a lot from doing so. SaaS companies are constantly expanding (and, sadly, occasionally going out of business), and while many believe that the race to develop products that consumers want is on, it's crucial that winning this race doesn't come at the expense of developing a strong, high-quality product that truly meets the needs of its specific target market.