Hey, I’ve been interested in moving towards product management, primarily at a tech company. I have 6 yoe in product marketing (Microsoft + qualtrics) working closely with PM including being de facto PM on some launches. In reality, there are many PM roles where you don’t need to be very technical but many companies seem to de facto DQ if you don’t have a comp sci/engineering degree. Would getting an MBA (non technical) be a significant positive in transitioning to PM? My thinking is you’re often told to think as a the “ceo of your product/feature” I’ve interviewed as a PM a few times (Microsoft and Amazon), where I’ve already known the product well or had a good referral but they ultimately passed because I wasn’t “technical” Any other advice? Thanks
My take is no, it's not necessary. You seem to be close enough that you could transfer internally and just build up your skills on the job or take a few courses. The only thing an MBA will help you do is do a summer internship as a pm and if you perform you'd essentially ensure your transition given that your issue is the lack of a technical background. Btw my answer would be different if you were technical trying to transition in. As an MBA might be a faster way in - albeit more expensive.
The internship is a good call out, can have them take a chance on you then prove it. But I agree, I’d rather transition internally
Not sure that getting an MBA is going to help when you're being DQ'd for not being technical. Maybe get more exposure to the engineering side of the product at your present company, if possible. At Cisco, PM's report up to engineering, so preference is generally given to those that started their career as engineers, regardless of an MBA.
Thanks for the insight
Top tier MBA would definitely help
I have one, it doesn’t.
You can go be a PM at most companies. Qualtrics is just silly about PM qualifications. I have plenty of friends in tech companies that have zero tech background who are PMs. It will never happen for you at q
A top mba program will feed into several pm programs (Amazon comes to mind as they hire many non technical MBAs into PM). Regardless of whether you get an MBA it's important to identify companies open to non technical PMs. In general e-commerce, social networking, and gaming are receptive to PMs with your background
Come to Uber. Most PM here have bachelor in ux design or some other crap
Lol. Savage
No, you need product experience, not business management theory.
ready to invest a year and $200k in opportunity cost for an MBA, but cannot learn some basic programming for becoming a PM?
they’re not mutually exclusive concepts. Most PM interviews don’t include coding in my experience and having others, so a CS degree is more of a check box. For me, a grad degree is about a lot of things including considering which doors it may (or may not) open. It’s a question about one of those doors
You don't need programming skills per se to be a PM , only ability to converse with devs
not really. you need a sort of apprenticeship. if you were de facto PM on a project or two, you need to overstate that fact in your resume and look outside your current company
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Mate, how would an MBA help you if they turned you down because you weren't technical? You're trying to overcome the non technical perception by becoming extremely non-technical MBA?
Super fair feedback. I’ve seen tech companies hire MBAs into PM roles, and the thinking for me goes perhaps it helps lean into the stronger “mini ceo” mindset that is encouraged for PM. Effectively, making your strengths even stronger to compensate. Most PMs don’t code and barely interact with code, so a strong business sense and customer understanding I think could go far.
Well, you already have a strong business sense and customer understanding - for products that you use in your daily life. Venturing a guess - marketing automation software, marketing analytics tools and crm add-ons, Adobe creative cloud, ad management platforms, etc. Did you try applying for companies were you can "think like" a customer/user? If these specific companies all told you, you need to be more technical - then that's what you should solve for. What are some examples of technical questions you could not answer?