I’ve been a product marketer for most of my career at Microsoft. I have a good sense of what it takes to take a product to market and understand the customer, positioning etc. But, I’ve never really owned a product (features, roadmap, design etc.) from a true product manager perspective and I think this skill is lacking. Question: I’m a eco/science undergrad and MBA grad with no degree in computer science but love working with engineers and technology. If I were to make the jump to engineering and technical product management, is that even possible? Or does the lack of a computer science degree keep me out of the running at all? I heard more and more engineering teams want some non-engineers to bring that acumen in. Is that true? Thoughts oh oracles of blind?
It’s totally possible. Curiosity and active interest, and an appreciation of engineers goes a long way. I’ve worked with outstanding PMs of all different backgrounds; some highly technical, some with a degree in Latin or another humanities field. Your apparent humility and enthusiasm makes you sound like someone people would enjoy working with—helpful as a PM :-) my guess is that you’re smart enough to learn and figure out the rest of it.
Thanks. I’ve been assuming it’d be hard to get through the first round if they start asking me to write code on whiteboards but your response is encouraging. Appreciated.
You’ll know if coding knowledge is required, but it’s pretty rare that it would be. Even for a “product manager - technical” role, you don’t want that person writing code. A PM highly versed in code but not responsible for anything production-ready can be...not the most helpful. Understanding what is feasible and how long certain things should actually take is of course valuable. But your job isn’t building shit. It’s making it possible for other people to build the best stuff possible.
It’s possible but imo an effective PM is highly effective in leading a team through hurdles and aligning them on a common goal. I think technicality may matter for certain products, but in general, it’s probably ok for you not to have a super CS oriented background. As long as a PM is versed in understanding general tasks, obstacles, and processes that each role in a product team faces, they should generally be ok
Loads of open PM roles at MS, and the skill sets they look for are all over the map. Try to find one that has a good amount of overlap with your experience that you can sell yourself for. Once you have some PM experience on the resume you can pivot even further.
Thanks for the insights folks. Very encouraging. Any good books you’d recommend for me? I’ve heard “how to crack the pm interview” is a good one...
I would recommend actually chatting with real people in the roles, rather than books, at least to start out. I’ve heard interviews.tech is pretty helpful. You can have 1:1 conversations with people at top companies
TC or GTFO
Hmm I’d say GTFO. But check with your parole officer first.