Routes to Product Management: Conventional vs. Unconventional Paths
Product management has emerged as a highly coveted profession in today’s dynamic tech-driven landscape. The role lies at the intersection of various organizational units involved in delivering successful and impactful products. It empowers individuals to bring valuable ideas to life. A Product manager, at any given time, can be seen donning multiple hats. It can range from understanding customer problems, performing market research, collaborating with stakeholders to develop the product, and successfully shipping it.
This role uniquely blends strategy and tactics, offering challenges, growth, and constant learning.
Ken Norton, a popular product management coach and writer, considers product management to be both an art and a science. Being successful in this role requires a diverse set of skills, including unquantifiable ones such as empathy, strategic thinking, or effective collaboration. Naturally, there is a huge demand for good product managers, making this role highly lucrative.
No wonder aspiring professionals from different backgrounds are keen on breaking into product management. Learn how to crack the PM interview here.
BREAKING INTO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
When it comes to breaking into product management, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. While some might follow a conventional path, leveraging relevant educational qualifications and industry experience, others find their way through unconventional routes. These unconventional routes might help bring diverse perspectives and fresh insights into the role. In this article, we will explore both conventional and unconventional routes to entering the product management domain.
Understanding the various pathways to product management will equip professionals wanting to switch to this exciting field with the knowledge to forge their unique journey. This applies irrespective of whether one is a seasoned professional looking for a career switch or a recent graduate eager to make their mark. So, let’s dive into the world of product management and uncover the secrets to breaking into this exciting field.
CONVENTIONAL ROUTES TO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
‘A conventional route to a product management career’ appears more of a misnomer. It is because many learnings needed to be a good product manager are experiential. Organizational context and structure play a huge role in defining the responsibilities of a product manager. Unlike some quantifiable skills like programming knowledge, which define success in roles such as software development, most product management skills are not quantifiable. In addition, the skills needed for success in this role continually evolve.
Evolving Product Management Skills
Having said that, several conventional routes have emerged that serve as reliable stepping stones to a successful career in product management.
1) Relevant Educational Degrees and Programs:
The first conventional route involves pursuing educational degrees and programs that help set up a strong base for success in the role.
Broadly speaking, product management exists at the intersection of three core domains: Business, Technology, and Customer. As such educational courses or programs aimed at either of these domains provide an edge to the aspirants. Many employers hire product managers with a robust understanding of technology. This makes computer science or programming courses an attractive option for those considering a PM career.
Additionally, knowledge about best practices in design and user experience is crucial for a product manager to succeed. So, courses centred around users in the form of design principles, UX, or UI can be valuable additions to a PM aspirant’s skill set.
2) Pursue an MBA
One program that has widely emerged as a program of preference for those seeking entry into product management is an MBA. An MBA equips students with a holistic understanding of business operations, strategy, and market dynamics. This knowledge is crucial in navigating the nuances of the PM role. An MBA also helps build a strong professional network that can be beneficial while trying to break into the role.
3) Certifications:
While relevant educational degrees help set a strong overall base for Product managers, certifications help firm up that base with specific product management knowledge. Some popular certifications include Product School’s certification programs, Scrum Alliance’s CSPO, AIPMM’s CPM certification or Pragmatic Institute’s certifications. These certifications are designed to offer focused and practical knowledge, often honing in on specific aspects of product management essential in today’s landscape. Recent graduates can use certifications to communicate their desire to learn and grow. Experienced professionals, on the other hand, can use certifications as stepping stones to transition to leadership positions.
4) Internal Company Transfer:
Another common way of breaking into the role is making a transition within the existing organisation. This is especially useful for professionals working in a product company with well-established product manager roles. Product management is a highly collaborative role. So, different organisational domains can lend useful skills towards pursuing a product management path. Engineers bring their fair share of technical understanding, particularly useful for technical products while designers bring a deep understanding of UX. Not only engineering or designing, but even domains such as customer service, consulting, or marketing offer overlapping skills helpful for making a transition. The usual journey involves interacting with product leaders and other product managers, shadowing them, learning the nuances internally, and gradually contributing more towards product decisions. This can eventually translate to a shift to the product manager role.
5) APM Programs and entry-level internships
Top product companies such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft offer well-structured Associate Product Management programs. These highly comprehensive and competitive programs are aimed at grooming recent graduates or early career professionals in product management and leadership roles. Although these programs are relatively new, they are highly coveted and a robust way of setting oneself up for product management success. It is worth reiterating that these programs are highly competitive and involve multiple interview rounds and significant preparation. However, getting into one such program can be a great milestone for ensuring success in your product management career.
UNCONVENTIONAL ROUTES
As mentioned earlier, a lot of learning required to succeed in product management is experiential. While the conventional routes mentioned above can serve as one route of gaining entry into product management, they are not the only way. There are a variety of unconventional routes as well. These are especially beneficial for individuals with highly diverse educational backgrounds or work profiles wanting to switch to product management. Some of these unconventional routes include:
1) Side Projects, Internships, or Hackathons
Creating a product portfolio through side projects, internships, and hackathons is gaining popularity as an unconventional route to product management. This approach involves creating functional prototypes, solving tangible real-world challenges, and presenting these projects to showcase practical experience and a proactive mindset. By opting for projects or internships, professionals can tangibly highlight their skills. This route can be especially beneficial for recent graduates or early experienced professionals who don’t have a lot of on-the-job learning yet. Often, these individuals can use platforms such as Medium, GitHub, etc., to document their learnings. These can act as their portfolio while interacting with potential employers.
An Example of how someone can highlight case studies they worked on to showcase their skills
2) Entrepreneurship:
Starting your own business or venture, no matter how small, offers an immersive experience in product management. Entrepreneurs have to wear multiple hats encompassing product development, delivery, marketing, and sales. Navigating the complexities of building a product from scratch equips entrepreneurs with many valuable skills essential for product management success. These involve prioritization, decision-making, problem-solving, conducting market research and strategic thinking. Having experience running and owning a business gives validation and credibility to your skills in front of potential employers.
3) Transitioning from niche backgrounds
Another unconventional and often untapped route is transitioning from highly specialized and niche backgrounds. Researchers or domain experts in the fields requiring a profound understanding of the domain are well-positioned to be product experts. Some examples include domains such as healthcare, artificial intelligence, blockchain, neuroscience, cybersecurity, or even legal and regulatory compliance. Professionals researching or working in these domains bring a high level of specific knowledge. This knowledge is essential for building successful products related to the said fields. So, this offers a way for professionals with highly specific knowledge bases to direct that knowledge towards game-changing products. Even consultants who, by their profession, specialize in market research and in-depth analysis of specific domains or market problems can use this route.
4) Other specialised fields
When it comes to unconventional routes, there are a variety of other ways also by which product managers can gain hands-on learning. Content creators who specialise in creating videos on social media through their channels often develop a deep understanding of the digital audience. This understanding is essential for them to produce meaningful, relevant, and engaging content for their audience. Since a core part of product management is understanding the customer, content creators can leverage their knowledge to enter into digital product roles. Similarly, gaming enthusiasts can lend their knowledge to product roles in organisations creating e-sports.
The above list, though not exhaustive, covers some of the unconventional ways by which those aspiring to break into product management can do so. A majority of product management learning happens through hands-on experience. This enables individuals with widely diverse knowledge and interests to enter this field.
CONCLUSION
It is worth reiterating that when it comes to breaking into product management, there is no one-size- fits-all approach. Conventional paths such as educational degrees, certifications, or internal transitions equip individuals with relevant knowledge and skills. On the other hand, unconventional routes provide a path for individuals bringing in fresh perspectives and diverse experiences.
What truly defines product management success is the ability to understand users, think strategically, and lead teams to build exceptional products. Success in the role requires continuous learning and a deep passion.
So, whether you opt for the conventional path or the unconventional path, the path is as varied as the products themselves.
