Great product managers can come from anywhere. They can be technical or non-technical, analytical or intuitive, introverted or extroverted. But they all share one trait in common - they're extremely effective.

So what makes an effective product manager? Extremely effective product managers have mastered five key "product knacks":

1. how to come up with ideas

2. how to generate buy-in

3. how to lead through influence

4. how to make decisions under uncertainty

5. how to get results

You might be thinking can these "knacks" even be learned? Aren't they soft skills that don't transfer easily? It's true that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to learning these types of skills because every time they appear, they are slightly different. But they absolutely can be learned.

Think of something you're naturally good at. It can be anything from making friends to picking out interesting restaurants. Do you have a single solution for your process? No. You have some kind of strategy or framework that you apply and pattern match to based on what signals you see. How you're able to do this is what makes you good.

The same thing applies for learning these knacks. These capabilities are based on pattern matching frameworks that you can learn and improve on. By learning these knacks, you'll get better at identifying what to do and what not to do.