How I broke into Product Management
In 2017, I took a risk by leaving the non-profit sector for an entry-level sales role. 3 years later, I’m a product manager and have doubled my salary.
There’s no specific educational path to prepare you for product management, and not everyone has a clear understanding of what product managers do. This makes product management a career that can be elusive and difficult to break into, especially if you don’t have a technical background or are trying to switch careers.
A year after being a PM, I find that being a good one is less about having lots of technical knowledge (though this can help), but having the ability to think strategically, the desire to learn continuously, and understanding how little pieces fit into a bigger picture. More importantly, it’s about digging deep to understand what problems need to be solved, and building business value by executing solutions. It’s an exciting and rewarding role for those who don’t feel settled doing the same thing over and over, or if you’re not sure what to specialize in. Product management is a career that people with diverse backgrounds can thrive in, and I wanted to share how I got here.
- I was extremely curious, and learned about a lot of things in my spare time. When I started my career as a project manager, I knew I was organized and could keep projects moving, but I wasn’t exactly satisfied with the role. It was missing something, but I wasn’t sure what — a sense of meaning? I learned about things that interested me to satiate my never-ending curiosities. I took classes in visual design, data analysis, writing. There was something within me that was convinced that these things would come in handy later — I just didn’t know what. Later in my career, I took additional courses for fun, including UX Design, and read books about human-computer interactions. All of it fascinated me, and all of it was handy when I became a PM.
- Well into my second year as an Account Executive at a start-up, I hit a brick wall mentally and in my soul. I wasn’t passionate about sales, and in many ways the role forced me to be something I wasn’t — commission-driven. I looked up my Meyers-Brigg personality type again, and was reminded that I’m an INFP (and got unchanged results for the past 10 years), a Mediator-type whose dream job would be to be a writer and whose worst career choice would be a salesperson. I imagined my life thirty years into the future and wondered if I’d be proud of what I’d accomplished if I stuck to being in sales. The thought made me feel bankrupt, so I decided to act.
- I had good relationships with the people at my small start-up. We had team lunches and Friday afternoon board games, so it wasn’t a bureaucratic place by any means. Everyone knew everyone. I tapped several people across various departments for 1:1 meetings to see if there was any potential or place for me outside of sales. When it sounded like people were open to the idea of a cross-functional role for me, I tapped the CEO for a walk. I was honest with him about how unhappy I felt, and that I’d be eager to do a more internal-facing, cross-functional role. Since I wasn’t sure what the differences were between product management, project management, and program management, he had me speak to a friend of his, a product manager at Facebook, to learn more and see which I felt attuned to.
- That 40-minute call changed the course of my career. The PM at Facebook helped me look ten years into the future, and how product management would be a great career because it was not boring or repetitive by any means. It was the opposite, and would be a challenge wherever I went. I was excited, and shared my thoughts and pitched myself to the leadership at my company. I reminded them of everything that’s on my resume — I had been a project manager, a data analyst, a salesperson. I let them know about the various courses I’d taken, and showed them some designs I’d done for a dashboard at my previous company (which was implemented). I showed them mock designs of an app I had designed for fun through my UX class. From being in sales at the company, I knew the pain points of our end users very well, and understood our product and business model intimately. I explained how by merging all of these interests and experiences, I had the potential to be a great PM. I wasn’t a specialist, but a detail-oriented generalist who was data-driven and could see the big picture. I just needed a chance.
- A small stroke of luck was involved. Our company really was only big enough to justify one product manager, but the PM at the time happened to leave the company. Since I had a strong interest in the role, the leadership team gave me a shot in good faith. I understood then what people meant by how timing is everything.
I broke into PM by doing my best in the role that I already had, having good relationships, being honest with myself and others, and asking for a chance. If I had never looked deep within myself to admit my unhappiness, or if I had been too afraid to tell others how I felt, I would have never broken into product management in the way that I have.
A year later, I learned so much, am much happier, and know this is a role I could see myself doing for a very long time. It’s hard, it’s a moving target, and I always have to learn and acquire new skills to keep up. It suits my need to always learn and grow personally and professionally.
If you’d like to know what resources I used to ramp up quickly, let me know in the comments!
