Breaking Into Product Management — Doing the Work
For working professionals who are trying to break into Product Management, I have a piece of advice that I always come back to.
Just do the work.
Easy to say, right? Let me help you understand what that can look like.
Doing Product Work
I have worked with and mentored technical and non-technical professionals interested in becoming Product Managers, many of whom have gone on to become full time PMs. There’s a long list of advice I’ll give, including to do their own homework on how to break in.
But the number one piece of advice I give them is to partner with a PM and pick up actual product work and projects.
Most people I talk to are absolutely on board with this idea, but struggle to understand what it means, how to do it, or where to even begin. In my career, I’ve carved out initiatives for aspiring PMs to own, providing guidance and direction to help them lead effectively. And I’ve had a lot of satisfaction in watching many of these people learn and grow and become PMs through their hard work.
In this article, I break down how individuals can find and tackle product work to get product jobs:
- Getting clear on your goals
- Taking work from Product Managers
- Picking your projects
- Working effectively with your PM mentor
- Leveraging your experience
Getting Clear On Your Goals
The core of product management is leading a team to build things. So for most individuals, your goal should be building experience to demonstrate that you can do the job. This means building real competence in the work, and proving to others that you know what you’re doing.
Your background and experience can help you set a realistic target (level of PM, type of PM, industry, etc.) and determine what kinds of projects make sense to pick up.
Whatever the case, be clear on your goals for doing product work. What skills you want to build, confidence to gain, stories to tell.
Taking On Product Work
Many PMs will gleefully hand over work to others, both to take work off their plates, but also for the personal and professional benefits of mentoring someone.
But there are several considerations before you start asking PMs to unload on you.
Be ready to hustle
You will be expected to continue doing your current job, and doing it well. If you aren’t seen as a solid performer, people may not trust you to pick up additional work. And you want people to believe you’ll be a high performing, successful Product Manager. Past performance may not be a guarantee of future results, but it sure as hell is an indicator.
And expect to put in extra work, because it is extra work. Becoming a Product Manager is now your side hustle. That means either finding time or putting in extra effort to do your product work. It’s a real challenge, but PMs are expected to effectively manage their time and energy while delivering results.
Get your manager on board
If you’re going to be picking up work that isn’t related to your primary responsibilities, you ought to get this cleared with your manager. Assuming they’re a decent manager who cares about you and your career, they will be supportive. Additionally, they can help you carve out more time to focus on PM initiatives. They can advocate for you as you seek opportunities to pick up work or even when you start applying for roles.
You really want this to all be above board so that if and when an opportunity arises internally, you’ll be in a position to capitalize on all the hard work you’ve put in.
If you can’t trust them, that’s really unfortunate. And you’ll have to weigh the risks and consequences of trying to do this anyway, or picking another route to becoming a PM.
Find PMs who will be great mentors
Not all PMs are equal as mentors. And your own situation impacts the kind of PM that can best help you. Reach out to several people and let them know you’re interested in becoming a Product Manager. Ask advice on who would be good mentors or might have projects that you could assist on.
- Find PMs who are genuinely interested in helping you and who have strengths in areas you want to develop.
- Aim to have multiple PM mentors. Find folks who you can partner with on projects, as well as those who can offer perspective, guidance, and coaching in your career journey. Look across a range of experiences — mid-level PMs who are in the thick of honing their product execution, Senior PMs who are exploring product strategy and driving larger initiatives, Product Leaders who make organizational and hiring decisions.
- Have your goals clear and up front so you can describe where you want to grow and what you bring to the table.
- Be humble. You’ve built up a good amount of skill and experience in your function, and are possibly a high performer. But any time you move into another function, you’re learning a lot of things from scratch. Hold onto a beginner’s mindset and accept that there are many things you do not know.
- Have good answers for why you want to be a Product Manager, and be able to show your determination. I’ll chat for 30 minutes with almost anyone who’s looking for advice, but I only invest in people who demonstrate that they’re serious about their career.
Asking for work
Once you’ve done your homework and have started chatting with PMs, it really is as easy as asking for work. Not all of your potential mentors will have work available, but they’ll all be motivated to help you find opportunities. Then it becomes a question of picking projects to build out the right experience and start your journey towards Product Management.
Picking Your Projects — Covering the Product Development Cycle
Ideally you will be able to work on multiple projects of varying scope that provide end to end experiences across the Product Development Cycle.
A quick primer on the Product Development Cycle
I’ve discussed the Product Development Cycle previously, but I’ll go over this briefly. As a Product Manager, you are responsible for ensuring your team is spending their time well. The Product Development Cycle is fundamentally about validation of your company’s investment (of time, resources, money) at each step.
A simplified breakdown:
- Discovery: Is this the right problem to work on right now?
- Definition: Is this approach the right solution given the constraints?
- Execution: Is the team building according to the requirements identified? Is the feature maintaining a level of quality that your users expect?
- Launch: Is the feature being released, marketed, and supported in a way to ensure it will succeed?
- Analysis: Did we succeed in our goals? What should we do next?
Each step can go quite deep, especially as you tackle bigger initiatives or work on different stages of the product lifecycle.
Covering the cycle: build on strengths and close gaps
Given your own background and experience, you likely have a place in the Cycle that you are more comfortable with. Perhaps you executed as a developer, gathered requirements in customer support or success, or partnered on launches and performed competitive analyses in marketing. In any case, you can capitalize on your existing strengths and dovetail that into a product initiative to close gaps.
For developers, picking up an initiative a step ahead of execution is a great start. You can take a well understood problem and properly scope it and define it for execution in collaboration with the designer, lead that initiative through the sprint process, and then work with the marketing partner to release and launch it. Following up after with analysis and feedback is a nice way to cap off the initiative.
Ideally you’ll have the opportunity to pick up initiatives and run them through the whole cycle, from discovery to analysis and follow up. But taking multiple projects for pieces of the cycle still enables you to experience and understand the process.
At Evernote, I worked with a technical support representative who was interested in becoming a Product Manager. I had her lead an initiative for our first integration with Siri Shortcuts. I provided high level guidance and direction, but allowed her and the team to define the shortcuts themselves and how they would be implemented. She worked directly with one of the developers and our QA lead to build the feature as part of our sprint cycle. And she was responsible for the release of the feature, while I assisted on the marketing launch. She later was able to move into a full time PM position.
Working Effectively With Your Mentors
Aim to maximize the effectiveness of each opportunity. Working effectively with your mentors is key. Foremost is ensuring you’re executing well. You should be able to work with a degree of autonomy, but check in with your PM mentor on the decisions you’re making and any concerns you have along the way.
Additionally, seek to learn best practices, frameworks, and the underlying principles behind each thing you’re doing. If you’re observing user interviews, debrief afterward on how the interviewer led the process. If you’re drafting a PRD based on a template, dig into how the template had been created.
Talk to multiple PMs to hear how they’ve done similar things. For guidance on how to execute it better, but also to learn the different ways people can approach the same problem.
And finally, build rapport and gain trust from your PM mentors. They will be your strongest advocates, especially for internal opportunities.
Leveraging Your Experience to Make the Move
You can leverage your product experience when transferring or interviewing for a PM position.
Moving internally into a PM position
Internal moves are a great way to break into Product Management. You’ll have built up a reputation and will be considered a much more known quantity than an external hire. Having done real product work will be proof of both your ability to do the job and the ability to go above and beyond to achieve results.
Your mentors, peers, and even manager can be invaluable advocates for you. The hiring manager will be chatting with them, and they can talk you up. If you’ve been following my advice, you’ll have already networked heavily throughout the PM team.
Do the work of leading projects and meeting with PMs, and you will be the obvious candidate for any PM opening.
Interviewing for PM positions
There are many articles and books about prepping for interviews, crafting your resume, etc. Your product experience will be an invaluable asset in your interview process. Having worked across the Product Development Cycle, you should have real examples to call out when asked about your experience — how you collaborate, how you would measure success for a feature, etc. Likewise, having done the work, you won’t be answering in purely hypothetical terms when tackling a product sense interview.
Take the time to review the work you’ve done. Really think about what you did and why. Practice the STAR or PEARL method for describing your projects.This will help you tell better stories in your interviews, and make your use of frameworks like CIRCLES much more natural and fluid during your interviews.
Closing Thoughts
A lot of people say they want to become a Product Manager. Be one of the few who puts in the effort to make it happen. Find people who will invest in you and help you grow. Be bold in your asks and humble in your learning.
Remember that this process takes time. Great Product Management comes from years of intentional practice. Doing the work, and learning from the work. Focus on the journey and take pride in the preparation you are making. Because you want to be ready when that opportunity arises.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this article was helpful. Please share your thoughts in the comments, and follow me if you’d like to see more about growing your career in Product Management.
