Product management is a great and rewarding career path for many people who want to create value and solve problems.
But how do you transition into product management if you don’t have any prior experience in the field?
How do you even know it’s a great career path for you?
Say no more!
In this blog post, you’ll
- Learn how to transition into product management
- Get expert advice on breaking into product management
- Learn the skills and requirements needed for associate product manager roles
- Best practices and tips to win
- Resources to help you get started
…even if you are a complete beginner.
What is Product Management?
Product management is a strategic function that involves “driving the development, market launch, and continual support and improvement of a company’s products.” – ProductPlan
While you’ll engage in many tasks regularly as a product manager (PM), your main task as a PM is to help users. According to Dominic Dominic Onyekachi (Lead Product Manager at Norebase ), all other tasks are simply an expression of that same task.
What Makes Product Management an Exciting Path for A NoCode Techie Making a Transition into Tech?
- You get to solve problems and help users with your product.
- Product management is a highly cross-functional role. This exposes you to many stakeholders, like executives and upper-level management, developers, engineers, designers, sales, marketing, and support. It also gives you access to aspects of running a business—for instance, strategy, finance, operations, marketing, legal and compliance, and many more.
- You don’t need a specific degree to start a career in product management. Product Management is the one role where the more diverse your background, the better.
- Your current experiences matter. However, you must know how to position yourself, show interest, and leverage transferable skills.
- Associate Product Manager roles are entry-level positions and are available. They are a good path to transition into the field. However, they are far and few in between and can be very competitive.
How Do You Know Product Management is For You?
Understanding the daily responsibilities of product managers is a great starting point. Here are 8 main tasks PMs do:
- Daily stand-up meetings with engineers to get updates and feedback on tasks in an agile sprint.
- Meetings with other departments – marketing, sales, business development, growth, management, etc.
- Writing documents for sprints for the next month.
- Conducting Product Discovery before writing documents to know what to write. This includes calling customers, constructing surveys, and sharing them.
- Research and data analysis.
- Collaborating with the internal product team.
- Executing product priorities. That is, metrics to meet monthly.
- Answering emails.
Now, ask yourself, “If I had to do each of these 5 days a week at work, would I enjoy doing them?”
If your answer is Yes, then we’d say go for it!
Above all, your role as a PM boils down to solving problems and helping users. If you’re a problem solver, product management can be a good fit for you.
You have one task as a PM, and that’s just helping users. Every other thing is just an expression of that same task. – Dominic Dominic Onyekachi
How Do I Transition into Product Management?
“Product management is more about the compatibility of your soft skills to the world than it is about your background to the role.” – Dominic Dominic Onyekachi
So first identify the soft skills you possess by asking yourself the 16 questions below. The boxes you tick are your strong suit and you’ll leverage them when transitioning into product management.
Moving forward, it’s worth noting that the role of a PM is multi-disciplinary. Therefore it requires different skills and experiences. Due to this, you can always transition into product management by leveraging your current skills and acquiring others along the way.
According to the Lead PM Norebase, any background you bring to product management brings an expression to the field. Hence, you can transition into the space and excel regardless of your current background.
Here are some scenarios to consider:
- If you have a psychology background → you may connect with users better.
- If you’re an engineer → you may spot trends in data faster.
- If you’re in FMCG → you might be better at processes.
To further explain the point of transitioning into entry-level PM roles with your current skills and background, find below a sample job description of an Associate Product Manager (APM) role.
You’ll realise if you ticked Yes to most of the boxes in the checklist, this is something you can do.
The “tea” is to know how to translate your current skills and experiences on your resume, cover letter, etc – when applying for an APM role.
Now that you have an understanding of what transitioning into product management entails, find below a guide you can follow (especially if you’re not enrolled in a bootcamp or pursuing a degree) to get yourself acquainted with the field and prepare for your transition:
1. Find free resources
Ask yourself these questions before deciding on a resource:
What do I know?
What don’t I know?
Do the resources address what I don’t know deeply enough?
Here, consider YouTube videos. Don’t just watch one video on a topic. Watch several videos to get a better understanding of the topic.
2. Look out for courses
Talk to people who have taken the courses before you take them.
3. Read books
Read the detailed guide on learning new skills here:
Related: Upskilling: A Proven Way to Stay Competitive in the Fast-Changing Remote Job Market
5 Great Skills to Prioritise When Transitioning into Product Management
Product management is a dynamic and multifaceted field, requiring diverse skills. And whether you’re just starting your journey or looking to level up, it’s important to prioritise the right skills. Here are 5 of them:
- Ruthless prioritisation: to focus on high-impact tasks, allocate resources judiciously, and deliver value.
- Ability to interrogate and ask questions: to enable you to uncover insights, validate assumptions, and gain clarity.
- Ability to make sound judgment calls intuitively: to balance data-driven analysis with experience and empathy.
- Curiosity: to fuel innovation by discovering new problems, and exploring new ideas, technologies, and markets.
- Empathy and Kindness: to create user-centric solutions and foster positive collaboration.
Looking for Product Management Resources As A Beginner? You’re in the Right Place!
Articles
- How to Transition to Product Management From ANY Background
- Why You Should Consider a Career in Product Management
- Product Manager Skills by Seniority Level — A Deep Breakdown
- The Ultimate Guide to Product Management
- Everything You Need to Know About APM Programs
Books
- “Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations” by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim.
- “The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn if Your Business is a Good Idea When Everyone is Lying to You” by Rob Fitzpatrick
Communities
Bonus: Product Manager Interview Tips
What do Lead Product Managers look out for in associate and mid-level PM role applicants?
Let’s hear from the Lead Product Manager at Norebase, Dominic Dominic Onyekachi.
Audacity
PMs that stand out have audacity. That is…
The believe that “there are seven billion people out there but I am the one that will solve this problem”.
Obviously you’re not the only one that is going to solve it. You have to get a team. You have to inspire them, you have to get it wrong sometimes, then get back and try it again in order to get it right.
But it’s just having that audacity and the confidence in yourself that no matter how many mistakes you make you eventually get it right.
I think grit and guts is the most important thing about being a PM.
Experience with execution
What differentiates an associate PM from a mid-level PM is execution – the experience they have with execution.
The more you execute, the more you find out what’ll work and what’ll not work within a particular context, so you’re able to execute faster. And you’re able to make less mistakes.
If I have a project that is high stakes and is mistakes-sensitive, I’ll give it to an intermediate. I will look out for someone who has done something similar before because mistakes can be costly.
It’s not that mistakes are bad – they are just costly so you need to find someone who has paid the price before and won’t have to pay it again or won’t have to pay it as much going forward.
The difference between an APM and a mid-level Product Manager is the years of experience and the quality of those experiences.
💡 Pro-tip
It’s one thing to have 4 years of experience, but if the only thing you’ve done in those four years is preparing sprints and pushing tickets, then you have not fundamentally defined the vision for a product and I might not be able to trust you with doing that for a new line that we’re trying to open up for a new market.
However, if the product team is moving slower and we need someone to tie it up together and make sprints more disciplined, that’ll be where you shine.
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