Mastering Technical Literacy for Women PMs and Product Leaders: Key Skills You Need to Know

In a recent Tech Ladies webinar, Irene Yu, CEO and Founder of Skiplevel, shared some great tips on how women in product management and leadership can level up their technical skills. Irene is a full-stack software engineer who's worked at Amazon and with various companies across the tech world. Since 2019, she’s been helping PMs, directors, and startup founders build their technical confidence and skills. Irene shared a simple but powerful framework for becoming technically fluent. It’s all about four core skills that help you assess, understand, and communicate technical information effectively. Let’s dive into what they are and why they matter.

Kelly Jamison

Feb 25, 2025

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min read

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4 Key Skills for Technical Fluency

Being Able to Communicate Technically The first skill is about talking the talk. It’s not just knowing the common tech terms, but also being able to read and understand things like API docs and software diagrams. For example, if your team is talking about "edge caching" to speed up app performance, you should understand what that means and be able to communicate it with confidence.
Awareness of Available Technologies The next skill is having a broad understanding of the tools and technologies out there. This means knowing the solutions for different challenges—like how to improve slow app speeds or reduce user churn. If your team is facing performance issues, you’ll want to be familiar with solutions like server-side caching or other tools to help make decisions that move things forward.
Evaluating Technical Trade-Offs Engineers often have to make decisions based on trade-offs. As a PM, it’s key to understand what factors (like speed, security, or ease of implementation) affect a decision. For example, if you need to improve app speed, you might be deciding between in-memory caching or asynchronous loading. Knowing how to weigh the pros and cons of each option will help you make smarter choices.
Understanding the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Finally, it’s important to know how the software development process works. Understanding the SDLC helps you collaborate better with engineers and stay aligned on product timelines. From planning to testing and release, knowing the process—and the tools used along the way—helps ensure things run smoothly.

The Bottom Line

By mastering these four skills—technical communication, awareness of technologies, evaluating trade-offs, and understanding the SDLC—you’ll be in a stronger position to work closely with your tech teams and lead successful products.

A huge thanks to Irene Yu for sharing her expertise with the Tech Ladies community! If you are ready to stop second-guessing yourself in technical conversations, enroll now with 100TECHLADIES and save $100. You can also check out her free mini-course to get started or peek at the Skiplevel Program Preview.

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Kelly Jamison

Kelly is a mental health counselor turned career coach and DEI advocate with over 15 years of experience. She’s worked as a career coach at NYU’s engineering school, in the software engineering bootcamp space, and now at Tech Ladies, where she specializes in supporting underrepresented genders in tech. You’ll find Kelly around the community hosting events, leading career coaching sessions, and connecting members with valuable resources.