I've been a web developer and designer since 1995, when you had to acid etch your HTML onto metal plates and print it onto cards with ink made from tortured livestock, then fed into the mainframe at midnight by orphans. Times have changed, but I've always had a foot in design and a foot in development. I've worked on high visibility projects as well as internal and B2B. My last job was providing front end development in Angular for an internal sales reporting app at T-Mobile (though I was dubbed a "senior software engineer"). Yesterday I found myself among the layoffs, along with 1/3 of my entire department. I have long thought that a logical next step for me would be a sideways one, away from javascript typing and typing and typing, and toward the conceptualization and planning stage of projects, which is where I always felt most inspired. From the reading and watching I've done on PM, ux/ui people often make this leap, but I am still intimidated by the prospect. Can folks share their experiences making the change, and what steps helped the most in courting the big companies, FAANG and the like? In particular, how to approach a PM role as someone who has no formal PM experience. Thanks! #pm #layoff #design
Ui/ux people def make that leap. It’s more pronounced at certain companies like intercom. I would try and go to a startup where you can own both roles and then sell that to a medium size company. It’s a little harder to go to faang to start with so why put all eggs in a very low probability basket?
I transitioned into product a few years ago with no formal experience. What I learned: - Easier to get hired for a product-adjacent role and transfer into the team once you’ve built credibility - Many PMs are strapped and are happy to share some work with aspiring PMs - this is a great to get official product experience without the title to start - Product is an apprenticeship, important there’s a person you can learn from - Next best option is reading a lot. I write about my experience at productlessons.substack.com - Another great resource is caseyaccidental.com
Planning projects sounds more like technical program management. Program = how and when Product = what and why