I’m an engineering manager and I want to transition to product management. I have been trying to move laterally for over a year but with layoffs and reduced headcount it’s been tough finding openings. Getting a job at a new company would be fine except everyone wants specific pm experience. I do have a lot of experience with pm-like responsibilities: sprint planning, roadmapping, ux design, and I’m on calls with customers and prospects every week. Is it worth doing an mba to try and break in? #productmanager #pm #product
Isn't EM very similar= you do strategy, managing, some design?
Sprint planning is not at all PM work, its EM or scrum master work. PM core work is product design
Depends on the company and team even but generally agree with this
I would say stick with EM role. In this market, all faffy roles will be chopped first. You touched on the point yourself that you do a lot of what PMs do but reverse can never happen. A PM can never prepare architecture docs, write code or lead engineers🙃
TPM/PM-T if anything. Easiest is probably what you are doing - lateral transfer. Maybe try building relationships with director/VP of product and make your intent known. Ask to join PM team meetings for exposure. Next is probably some technical PM role that requires an engineering background. I’ve seen some reqs that say 6+ years engineering exp 1+ year product management for staff or principal PM. In your spare time maybe invest in PM interview prep. As a PM that stuff is ridiculous but it’s what everyone uses so 🤷 Personally I recommend honing product sense by analyzing everyday products and services: (Identify product/service, large or small) - who is this designed for - what is the market for this - what problem does this solve - what is the next best alternative (status quo or best comparable product/solution) - how would you measure how good you are at solving this problem - what are the main benefits (functional and emotional) - what are shortcomings - why did the product team choose this EXACT set of features and not anything else - what are likely trade offs (cost, complexity, time, risk, fit, etc.) - if you were the product manager what would you do the same, what would you do differently, why? This could be for a pencil for all that matters. I think the hardest part for engineering is to jump out of solution space into problem space. This exercise should help
True PM response. You're hired!
MBA may help but maybe not for the reasons why you’d consider a MBA. I’m a PM with MBA. Mostly it’s just the network. You’ll have current PMs looking to break into tech and you’ll have fellow engineers looking to break into PM. Sometimes all it takes is a good referral. Second is internship opportunities- this will give you PM experience on your resume. Third is on-campus recruiting where typically alumni come looking for talent at their companies. They are a lot more relaxed than interviewing someone cold. I love the business topics they are fascinating but not sure how much that helps with landing a PM role. I’ve heard Amazon likes MBAs so maybe that’s an exception.
seriously you need to answer the question why you want to become a PM.
Maybe a pm experiential bootcamp?
Check out this other post, Jobs stuck, Every role has it's Good and bad. Stay an EM, it’s easy effort for the amount of money gained. People glorify PM because all the ego driven pms think they’re celebrities. Check out this post! "To all my fellow SWE/SDEs who hate PMs Please read this post. (Tech Industry)" https://us.teamblind.com/s/ddBbstgi
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Why do you want to transition? Aren’t SDMs paid better than PMs…
Exactly I’m a PM and given what this recession has taught us about the PM role I’m not sure why anyone would want to break in
I just enjoy the pm-type tasks more than the engineering work that I do