Product management is the most fascinating role within technology teams at the moment. PMs are now at the center of the action, owning a concerted amount of influence over key decisions on product design and direction.
Ten years ago, I joined one of the biggest telecommunication vendor companies in the world and I decided to take the leap myself and transitioned from operations into product (becoming one of the first few PMs in Telecom).
Since then, I’ve helped a number of folks transition into product from other job roles. I have chronicled in this newsletter, using practical examples when asked for advice on making this transition. 🚀
Why PM? : How to validate if PM is right for you.
Before you take the leap, be honest about a quick check on what drives you essentially.
If you are thrilled by the below, then PM is right for you:
- Solving problems (both your users’ and your team’s) 🙇♂️
- Driving business growth 📈
- Working closely with different people 👫
- Executing a strategy 🙅
- Leading (Influencing) a team 🤝
- Communicating extensively 🔦
- Making decisions 🔖
- Building amazing experiences for users 👌
- Being organized, detail oriented, and prepared 😎
You might not connect with every item in this list now, but if you still feel connected to a few, you might want to keep reading.
First, Plan the “How”: The three most common paths into PM
Based on my experience, here are how most people get their first shot at product management:
- Internal transition at a large company — The most popular path, but requires three things in sync — a clear internal transfer process, having a shot at demonstrating the skills outlined below, and an internal PM champion to guide your transition.
- Finding a junior PM role at a large company — I have found that this is a popular route for MBA graduates (please note that an MBA is not required to become a PM). The key to this route is clearly demonstrating that you are smart, driven, and have raw strengths in a handful of the skills described below.
- Joining a focused startup — The key to this route is having connections with startup founders, demonstrating hustle, and delivering success when you get the chance.
Next, Build the “What”: These 7 skills will change your life.
Product management varies largely by company, by goals and by team, but in my experience the following seven skills are the most critical to build early in your PM career. Don’t worry about being perfect at all of these — focus on getting better in short bursts.
1. Identify a problem and being able to develop a strategy to fix it.
The job of a product manager is to marshal the resources of their team to drive business value. Your team will be given problems (e.g. drive product adoption, reduce churn rate, increase conversion of a flow), and your responsibility will be to guide your team to make it less of a problem.
A good strategy is a set of actions that is credible, coherent, and focused on overcoming the biggest hurdle(s) in achieving a particular goal.
One recommendation for developing your strategic thinking
Take a problem your current company (or friend) is having and come up with a methodology that breaks the problem into solvable chunks.
2. Execution
Tactically, this includes things like building a roadmap that everyone on your team is sync with, setting and hitting deadlines, and ruthlessly unblocking blockers. For new PMs, my advice is to begin practicing this skill immediately.
One recommendation for developing your execution skills:
Regularly ask yourself “how am I going to move my product forward today?”
3. Communication.
You can never be too good at this. As a PM, you must over-communicate.
One recommendation for developing your communication skill
Storytelling: This is a meta-skill that will make you better at all of the above. I’ll share framework tools in the telegram group, for laying out your pitch, and a few more helpful guides.
4. Leadership through influence.
In order to succeed you need to be able to build trust with your teammates, make decisions but also give everyone a voice, and keep morale up no matter what’s going on. Help your team do the best work of their lives.
One recommendation for developing your product leadership skills:
Foster culture within whatever team you are on. Establishing fun rituals and customs, plan outings, and create a lasting identity for your team.
5. Making data based decisions.
Teams generally look to the PM to help them reach decisions. Your best friend in decision making, is a clear set of rules previously agreed on and concrete data.
Never rely on gut feel.
One recommendation for developing your decision-making skills.
Always have a perspective on a decision (your own POV), but also be ready to change your mind given new information.
6. Building great products.
Ultimately, you are building a product for other people, and so you’ll want to build some experience doing this. You must learn to build an instinct for what makes a product great, how to find the balance between science and art.
One recommendation for developing your product sense:
- Build a (small) product yourself or with friends, and get it out there. Find a small problem and try to solve it for someone (or yourself). There’s absolutely no better way to learn than to do it yourself.
- Learn to notice what makes you like and not like a product. Consider keeping notes about what makes products good and bad.
7. Stay prepared — Ownership
The key to building this aura is to become increasingly detail oriented, to be more prepared than anyone else, and to have a higher bar than those around you. I personally started off being very bad at this, and saw a lot of growth in my career once I prioritized these skills. OWN YOUR PRODUCT!
One recommendation for developing your “ownership” aura. Bonus: Skills you’ll need to build over time to continue to excel
- Vision — Establish your team’s north star, articulate it clearly, and get all stakeholders to buy into it.
- Business sense — Understand what drives the business, and help your team build the useful things.
- Impact obsession — Connect everything you are doing to the impact it will have on your product and your customers.
- A growth mindset — Be constantly-evolving, stay nimble.
Next Steps
In all my years as a PM, my major job is summed up: “Figure out what’s next.” So, what comes next for your journey into product management? I advice you start developing and demonstrating the skills I outlined above.
You have one job — Be as prepared as possible when an opportunity arises.
In the final episode, I will share resources on how to land your first PM role, resume samples from PM’s I have hired, and the skills you’ll need in order to excel.
Happy to read your replies and feedback.
Salem
Originally published at https://salemsmith.substack.com.
