The most common question that comes up during interactions with my colleagues is what is the best possible way to get into Product Management. I have had this conversation around how to transition into a Product role with colleagues from strategy, operations, account management, program management, accounting and in some rare scenarios even with the developers in my team.
A question that typically leads to a detailed discussion around how exactly their career has panned out till now and why Product Management looks like a good stream to pursue. The obvious answer is “depends” - on their existing role, their expectations from the transition, etc. I wish to capture a high-level extract of how to think about this transition. (I also hope that writing this down will help me structure these discussions better in future).
Product Management I am referring to is Software Product Management.
‘What is Software Product Management?’
Fundamentally, it is building software products to solve problems for your customers. (I am skipping a detailed discussion on the what-is part of product management, to focus on how-to).
Getting your foot in the door
There are tons of material on how to crack a PM interview (my favorite is ‘Cracking the PM interview’) and I would skip that part for later. Before the interview, the biggest obstacle is to get your foot in the door, an opportunity to interview for the role and this is where I want to focus on.
In my previous role as Product Manager at Paysafe, I had been on multiple profile screening panels and one thing I have noticed (and this might be India centric case), people are a little reluctant to entertain candidates who do not have a Product Manager title on their resume. This might be due to existing biases around the role or the team does not have time or patience for the incoming person to pick up Product management traits. While I do not agree with this thought process (precisely the reason why I am writing this article), but if that is a market reality then we have to figure out a workaround for that.
Transition within your Organization
Given the reluctance most of the companies have in hiring non-PMs for a PM role, transitioning into a PM role in your existing organization is comparatively easier vis-a-vis applying for PM role in a different organization.
Most of the organizations (except startups and we will come to that later) have pretty much similar hiring process even if you are transitioning from a different functional role. So the ease factor that I am talking about it majorly because,
getting the first interview is easier due to your existing network/goodwill
product teams or product leaders are usually more open to onboard functional experts they have already collaborated with.
Probable reasons why the Product team could be more open for an internal candidate could be a combination of:
The problem area the team is working on is very function-specific(ops efficiency tools, data platforms, accounting tools, etc.) and hence getting a functional expert and helping him ramp up his PM skills is easier compared to getting a generic PM and helping him with domain knowledge.
The turnaround time to onboard someone from outside is on the higher side
The individual has already demonstrated PM skills in their existing role
One obvious common theme across internal transfer is, you would pretty much work in the similar domain. But in your new role, you will collaborate with the engineering team to solve problems using software rather than just optimizing the processes.
The following are some examples of problem areas based on the functional role that you would be expected to take up or you can look out for as part of your transition. This list is based on my personal experience(definitely not exhaustive) on how people who I personally know of, have transitioned into a PM role within the same organization.
| Functional role | Problem areas |
|---|---|
| Operations | Ops efficiency internal tools. Eg: workflow management, SCM, procurement optimization tools, etc. |
| Strategy | Large cross-functional problem areas, company-wide initiatives, etc. |
| Marketing | Ad expense optimization, promotion management, targeting tools etc. |
| Marketing | Ad expense optimization, promotion management, targeting tools etc. |
| Engineering | Engineering centric toolsets, Data platform, API ecosystem, etc. |
| Program Management | Large cross-functional problem areas spread across multiple engineering teams, third-party integrations (RFPs, contracts, pricing), etc. |
| Accounting | Tools based on complex accounting rules, eg: cross border transaction-based, billing, auditing, tax systems etc. |
| Analytics | Data platform, pricing, simulation tools, etc. |
| Account management | Enterprise tooling, third party integrations, account dashboards, health trackers, etc. |
| Customer Obsession/Experience/Success | Customer support/success tools, ticketing systems, etc. |
Just to emphasise, while building & shipping software will be crucial in your new role, it won’t be the only thing, the good old process optimisation that you probably had been doing in your previous role will go hand in hand with the new tools you will build.
Preparation
Step 1 to begin the process of transition is reaching out to PMs you have already worked with and communicating your interest. Breaking this barrier is super critical to get the ball rolling. Once this communication channel is open, you can have conversations on what are the necessary skills you can focus on to successfully transition to Product Management.
Use the product extensively that the team is working on, identify all the pain points (could be design, tech, process), given an opportunity, discuss them. Focus the discussion on problem rather the solution.
Do your homework. Use whatever access to data you have to generate actionable insights, something that people would have missed. Even one actionable insight is good to get the conversation going.
Lastly, be patient. This is a going to be a big career move, so it is going to take time. All the best!
P.S. I have skipped the section on how to transition to a PM role outside of your current organisation. Will take a dig at it later.