I'm a community manager (who also does a lot of CX for our apps and writing a lot of promotional copy) and a few people have suggested product marketing would be an interesting direction for me to go. How did you get into your role? Looking at descriptions, it looks like a pretty good skill match for me but also I've found it can be hard to switch job "buckets". Do you like it?
Product marketing might be a bit different than product management. Look closely at what the job entails and go for it if you enjoy seeing things from customer point of view. There is also a lot of working between sales and engineering which can be a huge pain in the ass unless you’re really good with people. Sales people almost always want more from a product than engineering can build, and each group blames the other for shortcomings. ( I find blind interesting because so much of this chatter is focused on writing code for lots of $$, but very little is discussed about the product itself and how to make it better for customers). My guess is you will get a lot of views contrary to mine. More $$ as SWE.
Yeah, but I hate coding, so I'll never make a swe. I'm actually coming from a cx and marketingish (social? It's a bit complicated) background, so I already write a lot of content promoting the dumbass stuff the product team put together without ever thinking about what the customer actually wants/will use/can use. It seems pretty ideal to find a role where I'm still liaising with the same teams and still am using my skills at writing and being able to model customer mentalities, but actually get to help drive it, shape products to match and shape the brand etc etc
I'd recommend UX instead. Less competition and higher pay often because it's part of Product Management at a lot of companies.
Doesn't UX have a heavy design component? I'm more of a words person.
UX writer is a more recent role available in forward-thinking software companies who realize the words used are important. Also called product content strategists.