Seven Practical Steps to Forging a Flourishing Product Management Career

Product management can be a thrilling and rewarding career path for professionals from various fields. It’s one of those careers that almost everyone wants to pursue, but many find it hard to land a job. Below, Spice Catalyst shares some simple steps for advancing your product management career and getting your first job!

1. Understand the Product Manager’s Role

You must first understand what product management entails before building your career. Product managers are responsible for overseeing the entire lifecycle of a product, from conception to launch, to ongoing marketing to end-of-life.

They work with cross-functional teams — including people in design, engineering, customer support, marketing, sales, and sometimes distribution — to ensure a product meets the needs of the target users, is marketed effectively, sold responsibly, and is supported. Familiarize yourself with these responsibilities so that you know the skills and competencies you need to excel.

2. Acquire Relevant Skills and Experience

You must possess a range of skills and experience to flourish as a product manager. Some of the primary ones include:

• Product design and development process
• Market research, including understanding the customer well
• Data analysis, if big data is available
• Technical expertise, which, if not from college, doing a good deep dive into research and studying
• Communication: Ability to write, speak, and persuade effectively, plus able to negotiate and mediate disputes

It’s OK if you don’t already have all the skills; focus on developing those that are most relevant to your specific career path. Get experience by working on relevant projects, volunteering, or taking up internships to enhance your portfolio and make yourself more marketable.

Try to obtain as many of the skills depicted below:

3. Get an MBA

Earning an MBA can have a profound impact on your product management career by expanding your business knowledge, communication skills, and other critical skills. An MBA program can provide you with a comprehensive understanding of various business functions (e.g., finance, marketing, operations, etc.), enabling you to make informed strategic decisions for your products.

Also, some Universities offer executive product management training.  IIML, Lovely Universities in India offer six-month programs based upon Spice Catalyst’s book “Successful Product Design and Management Toolkit,” which is also available on Amazon.  University of Wisconsin, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon of Silicon Valley, and there are several private schools.  Some, like Spice Catalyst, also offer online, on-demand courses with certificates that you can proudly display on your LinkedIn profile.

Pursuing an online MBA is ideal for streamlining, well, everything. You’ll have more flexibility to manage other life responsibilities without compromising your education. And in some cases, you can save money through online courses.

4. Create a Strong Resume and Linkedin Profile

Your resume is your most valuable marketing tool, and you want to ensure it stands out to potential employers. Focus on highlighting your relevant skills and experience to the role you are applying for. Ensure that your resume has a clear objective or summary showcasing your strengths and experience in product management.

In your LinkedIn profile, be sure to list everything you have done, including jobs, volunteering, non-profits, experiences, activities, education, and so forth.  The more, the better, since bots crawl the site for recruiters and hiring agents to find the best people.  Plus, artificial intelligence is just beginning to be deployed to find the best candidates. 

5. Design a Website and Write LinkedIn and Medium Posts

Creating a personal website can be a game-changer for your career. A well-designed website with quality content showcases your skills, achievements, and expertise so it’s easier for potential employers or clients to discover and evaluate you.  Google and other search engines will crawl your website and index it.

You can optimize your site to reach a wider audience and boost your online visibility by learning more about developing content and implementing SEO practices. Along with enhancing your professional credibility, this will open up new opportunities for career growth. Unlock a world of possibilities by building a top-notch website!

By writing interesting LinkedIn and Medium posts, they will also get indexed and increase your web visibility.

6. Network and Build Relationships

Networking is vital to advancing any career. Reach out to professionals in your field and go to product management conferences, meetups, and panel discussions. The key is to engage in conversations with other participants and learn as much as possible from the keynote speakers and other experts. 

You might also participate in online forms like LinkedIn and Quora. You never know who can provide insider tips on job openings or introduce you to potential employers!

On Linkedin, follow people in product management and ask to connect.  The more, the better.  But don’t ask for a job.  Ask for advice.  If you resonate with someone and they have a job opening, they just might want to interview you for that job.

7. Ace the Interview

Preparing and executing during your interview is the final step to landing your dream job in product management. Be ready to answer questions about your previous experience, your approach to product management, and your goals as a product manager. Also, remember to:

• Practice your answers with a friend or mentor
• Prepare examples that demonstrate your experience and skills. If you take Spice Catalyst’s online courses, for example, you will get a workbook you can fill out and use as a portfolio with the prospective employer.  For example, if you take the Product Market Strategy course and fill out the workbook, you can show that and prove you know how to do the job. Or you can buy the workbook from Amazon and do it:

* Building Insanely Great Products Workbook
* Product Market Strategy Workbook
* Do, Innovation, Design Thinking and Value Proposition Workbook
* How to Facilitate Work on Product Teams Workbook

• Ask questions about the company, the role, and the product’s challenges.
• Lastly, ask the company and your prospective hiring manager about the values of the company and his.  Then, when the interview is over and when you get the job offer, do a comparison to your personal values.  If there is a match and the company and manager follow their values, you will be happy and prosper at that company.  If not, you will be in a world of hurt, and you will either quit or be fired.

The Bottom Line

As rewarding as it can be, product management requires a great deal of dedication and effort. Getting your foot in the door can be challenging, but taking the steps outlined above will get you off to a strong start. Never stop learning about your desired field, and never become complacent. You must set yourself apart from others to excel in the coveted field of product management!

Would you like to read more helpful content or learn about our product management and marketing services? Visit SpiceCatalyst.com today!