So, you think you can manage product? Product management is one of the fastest growing professions right now with ~32% growth from 2017 to 2019. And just like it is with anything in the growth phase, everybody wants to get in on the action.
However, product management has still not gone mainstream yet. A lot of us (including myself) are not even aware of this profession until we come across a product manager. And by the time we get to know, understand and fall in love with product management, it might already have been too late. We might have taken a different course during graduation or already started our career in a different domain. And thus, many of us are left wondering “How to break into Product Management?”
Why Product Management?
If you are here reading about breaking into product management, then I can safely assume that you have a good idea of what product management is, what does a product manager do, and you are excited about pursuing product management as a career. However, I have seen a lot of people get fancied by wrong stereotypes or myths and thus deciding to get into product management. So, just a quick heads up before we start –
1. “You are not going to be the CEO of your product”
You are not going to be the sole decision maker (especially in MNCs) and will have to take inputs from probably 10 different teams. It’s not gonna be like whatever you think of gets build.
2. You will be held accountable for anything that goes wrong
Though you are not the sole decision maker of your product, you will have to take responsibility (directly or indirectly, fully or partially) of your product’s failure. Also, you may not always get recognized (or at least will have to share credit) when your product delivers successfully.
3. You will have to multitask
You’ll be making long term strategic decisions and at the same time firefighting 10 different day to day issues. So, don’t ever think of giving excuses like “I am not able to focus because of context switch”.
Note – Getting into any profession mainly has 2 key steps –
1. Getting shortlisted for the interview
2. Acing the interview
Here we try to focus more on the “getting shortlisted for the interview” part of breaking into product management. To learn more about what skills you may need to actually ace the interview refer to our post on Top 10 product management skills.
Who are you?
Now, there is no one size fits all guide for breaking into product management. Depending on where you are right now in your professional journey you may have a different path to product management.
Fresher (Recent college graduate)
You have just recently finished college and have no (or very less) work experience.
1. Practise Practise Practise
This holds true for almost any profession. The more you practise the better you’ll get at the product management.
a. Try to think from multiple point of views
- User (How does the product adds value to the user),
- Business (How does the product helps generate revenue),
- Technology (Tech feasibility, complexity and scale of your product)
b. Pick your most frequently used apps (or websites). Assume that you are a product manager there and try to come up with –
- 10 things you would like to improve about that app
- 10 things you really like about that app which you think are unique about it
2. Awareness of basic Product Management concepts
Familiarize yourself with the basic product management concepts like PRD, MVP, Sprint, Wireframes, User stories etc. May be do an online course related to product management. However, don’t yet go too deep into the theoretical concepts. The idea is just that you are able to understand and follow the discussion if these terms come up in a discussion somewhere and don’t end up feeling totally lost.
3. Build something
Showcase your passion and, in a way, prove yourself.
a. Make your own website
This is a highly underrated exercise. Don’t worry too much about the content to begin with. Just think of it as your online CV (curriculum vitae). Put whatever information is in you CV on your website. The simple process of designing the website, structuring the site directory would give you (as a fresher) immense clarity on what lies ahead on the road to product management. You’ll realize that there is a thought process behind even the simplest of the things like font, font size, button color etc.
b. Make your own app
Since we are living in a mobile world, this is the need of the hour. There is an app for almost everything nowadays. There are many platforms like Appy Pie, Andromo etc. which let you create your own app quickly without much technical (or coding) knowledge. This would again give you clarity of thought and structure in terms of what the user flow should be, how to arrange information, should you show all information on one page or split it into multiple steps etc. And besides everything else, this is actually quite fun.
4. Communication skills
Though there are a lot of skills required for product management, communication skills stand out for a fresher as you probably don’t have many projects to showcase your skills yet. And thus, your communication skills are your biggest ally to convey your ideas and thoughts to the interviewer. For other important product management skills, refer to the “Top 10 skills that every product manager must be good at”.
5. Internship
If you can get a few months internship in a product management role, go for it. You can easily find out internship opportunities on almost every job search platform. Although I’m not a big fan of unpaid internships, but if it’s a good role (or a brand), then I would suggest not to make stipend (salary) as a big mental roadblock and just go for it. Think of these few months as a long-term investment in your future.
6. Referrals
You are much more likely to get an interview call if you are referred by an existing employee vs if you applied online. Also, as a fresher, chances are that your CV would most likely get filtered by bots (due to lack of experience) if you just apply online on the company website. So, reach out to your network of friends, family, school / college alumni and just shamelessly ask for a referral. It’s not a big deal.
Working professional in Engineering, Design, QA or Analytics
You are at an advantage here as most probably you already know how product management works. Being part of Engineering, Design, QA or Analytics, you must have already spent a good amount of time with product managers in your company and thus have a much better and realistic understanding of the role.
It’s much much easier for you to transition into product management within your current org. Even if you don’t like the PM org in your current company or don’t plan to stay at your current company for long, just stick around and transition into product management first. Take whatever project you are getting as a product manager. Just get stamped as a product manager once. Because there is a basic flaw in how the recruitment happens in majority of the companies – your most recent designation matters the most during recruitment.
Just be very open and transparent with your manager that you want to get into product management. A lot of employers (or managers) appreciate it when employees are clear and honest about their career aspirations. If you have stayed a few years in your current company (in any of the above roles) then transitioning to product management is more of a question of relationship management rather than skills.
Give it time. My view is to give it around 6-12 months. If your manager can’t get you a full-time PM role in this time, then it’s clear that you are being taken for a ride and it makes more sense to start exploring outside your current company. But hey, hopefully by now you have got at least one product management gig and can mention yourself as a product manager in your CV (We all exaggerate in our CV. That’s a fact. Don’t judge me).
Working professional in some other domain
You are probably working in a profile which has no (or very little) overlap with product management, let say Accounting, Sales or HR. Now, this is a career shift we are talking about. First of all, kudos to you for at least acknowledging it to yourself that you want to make this shift. You may have to let go of the work experience and seniority that comes with it. It may involve a pay cut as well.
Please me mentally prepared that it is going to be relatively tough for you to get into product management (due to the basic flow in recruitment practices we talked about earlier). Once you have made up your mind about getting into product management, then the steps for you are pretty much similar to what we discussed for a fresher above (because like it or not, you are a fresher when it comes to product management).
Please note that these were just some of the non-conventional practices to break into product management. You still have a lot more to do with respect to actually honing your product management skills and acing that interview once you get a call. Let us know in the comments your thoughts on the above steps or if you have any more ideas about breaking into product management that may help aspiring product managers in future.