Build these skills on your path to PM
Photo by Jannes Glas on Unsplash
Let’s assume that you know what product management is and you definitely want to get into it. I can't convince you otherwise. I'll say one thing - are you sure? Because it's not an easy job and it's not glamorous. I get it though, the demand for product management is certainly rising.
Many posts detail what product management is and even how to get into it. What I want to share here are the most transferable skills that will both help you make the transition into product management and be successful as a PM. I chatted with 3 women who are well into their product careers to get more perspectives on the skills that they built in other roles that helped them as PMs.
Lenny Rachitsky covers the four most common paths into product management here and Sachin Rekhi talks about 5 paths into PM here. One of the most common paths they cite (and also the one I took) is to make an internal transfer into product management. So let’s dig into the most transferable skills and how you can build them in non-product roles within your company.
Business and customer sense
To build a product that solves a real pain point for your customers and generates value for your company, there are some fundamental things you must understand:
Who are your target customers? What are their pain points as it relates to your product?
What market are you playing in - what else exists? How is your product different?
What are your company's business model and go-to-market strategy?
These questions allow you to define which problems to solve and for whom. Knowing the business model and go-to-market strategy clarifies which metrics are critical to your company's success. If your product follows a subscription model vs. a marketplace model, there will be levers to pull and strategies. You can build awareness about this in any role within a company, and I would argue that you should learn about these things even if it's not your job to know.
Some of the best roles to build this expertise:
Strategy and/or analytics
Support
Sales
Customer success
Marketing
Design
Subject matter expert roles (for example, content creation in an ed-tech company)
Problem-solving
A lot of product management is bringing clarity to an ambiguous problem and defining a path forward. Effective problem solving is what lays the groundwork for decision-making and prioritization, which are two key "outputs" of the role. Without effective problem-solving i.e., being able to define the problem and break it down into solvable steps, you'll be ill-prepared to gather the right information and drive decisions and outcomes.
Caroline Goodwin talked about how her time working in customer service and support, taught her how to understand customer needs and problem-solve to help them address their issues. She was able to identify the root cause of issues and help the product team improve the product to address customer pain points. Her advice to folks in support and customer service looking to make the transition to PM, is to be confident in what you know. You are an expert when it comes to the product and the customer and your role is crucial to customer success.
Some of the best roles to build this expertise:
Engineering
Support
Customer success
Management
Teaching
Theatre production! (See example below)
The art of translation
So much of product management is communicating between different groups of people. PMs need to be able to synthesize information and data and tell a compelling story across several groups of people. Kelly McStay emphasized being able to communicate user needs across groups without losing context. That’s where this skill of translation, or being able to speak to other people in their language becomes so important. Effective communication is table stakes but PMs can differentiate themselves by becoming great storytellers and translators between functions.
Communication can mean a lot of different things. Both written and verbal communication are critical to master as a product manager. But to become an expert at the art of translation, there are two areas to develop:
Relationship building: the ease with which you can get to know someone, what they do, what they care about, and how to work effectively with them, the better off you'll be.
Asking the right questions: a lot of PM-ing is facilitation and connecting people and ideas. In my experience, PMs are frequently setting up and leading meetings across different groups. Meeting facilitation skills are table stakes but if a PM asks great questions, it can dramatically alter the discussion and progress of the conversation.
Some of the best roles to build this expertise:
Consulting
Strategy + analytics
Teaching
Project and program management
Writing and content creation
Data literacy (SQL, analytics)
There is a huge data component to product management, particularly in growth PM roles and PM at larger organizations where optimization is a focus. Regardless, being able to measure the impact of your work is fundamental to PM. By learning what data is available, where it comes from, and how it’s created, I have a better understanding of ways to iterate on the product and the feasibility of those iterations. For example, if you want to personalize a user’s experience based on job title, you have to think about if that data is available and if not, how you would create it and use it. I wrote a bit more about this here.
Some of the best roles to build this expertise:
Strategy + analytics
Data science
Data engineering
Project management skills
Product management should never be confused with project management - it's one of the most painful things for a PM to hear 😅 however, there is likely some degree of project management tasks with any product management job. PM-ing can be a lot like this:
You need to be able to context switch and create systems for prioritization and execution. Teams often rely on the PM to pace the work and be on top of all the little details. This is another table-stakes skills but it can be developed in any role.
Roles to really build this skill:
Project/program management (duh)
Operations
You can build all these skills in non-traditional tech roles, too. Emily Levada talked about how her time as a theatre production manager helped her build a lot of these fundamental skills: communication, project management, problem-solving, and even SQL. She reflected that at the end of the day, the job of the production manager is to take a written set of requirements (the script) and translate it into a living thing that creates an emotional impact for the customer (the audience). Sounds a lot like PM 👀
Leaders hiring PMs should think about how a unique background can bring both a new perspective and different skills to the PM role. It’s a role that requires creativity, adaptability, and a high degree of EQ. There are a number of great ways to build these skills beyond the common paths from engineering or design.
The good and bad of product management is that the role can be highly variable based on company size, stage, product, industry, and more. The skills I’ve outlined here, however, are pretty crucial to all types of PM roles and can be developed and honed in other roles as you make your way to product management.
What are other skills you’ve built that helped you transition into PM?