6 obvious things you don’t do that would speed up your transition into Product
While organizing PM Breakfast — a monthly event series for female product managers of all levels that I’ve been hosting for almost a year — I was lucky to meet many new PMs, who have made the transition, and many aspiring PMs, who are still working on their transition, some of them much longer than expected. There is one thing that sets apart a soon-to-be PM from a stuck-in-transition PM: the ability to think like a Product Manager or her product sense.
Here are 6 obvious things you might not be doing today that can train you to think like a PM.
1. You don’t treat your career as a product.
You don’t have to wait until you have an official Product Manager title to start thinking like a Product Manager.
Product Management is not just a role — it is a state of mind.
A Product Manager approaches every problem as a product-market fit problem. They think strategically and operate tactically.
The truth is, you need to PM yourself like you would PM your product. Use your transition as an opportunity to practice your PM skills and adopt and apply frameworks and tools a PM needs to have in her toolkit to find your product-market fit. Don’t wait; start early.
2. You don’t know your value proposition.
The most important part of successful goal-setting is being very self-aware about where you are starting and what distinguishes you from other people based on your unique background, knowledge, traits, and skills. A product manager, who does not have an objective perspective on her product, would most definitely fail while finding her product-market fit.
Many successful companies perform SWOT analyses to assess their business ventures because it is effective and simple. When was the last time you did an objective self-assessment of your strengths and weaknesses for your career?
3. You don’t have a clear product narrative.
Being a great PM is about being able to craft a narrative. Crafting a compelling product narrative is hard — that’s why you have to invest time to get to know your customers, your market, and your product.
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek
If you don’t think of yourself and your career, in the same way, you have to change that now. A great PM is a storyteller. A good product narrative brings together why your product matters (your motivation and value-added) with what your product does (your skills and experience).
One of the most powerful resources I would recommend on this topic is Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.
4. You don’t set your personal OKRs.
Last year, did you have the intention to _________________ (lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, or transition into Product), but did not succeed? You are not alone: only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions. It is not easy to follow a vague resolution; it is much easier to execute a plan.
“To say OKRs have changed my life would be an understatement. They have made my life possible. They are the backbone that holds my life together.”
Personal OKRs have three main benefits:
- Help you think strategically and operate tactically
- Help you stay focused on what matters, and focus is the key to success
- Help you be agile — if something is not working, measure, adjust, change your expectations, reset, try again.
Today, there is plenty of information online about how to apply OKR to your personal needs, and you can use online tools to keep track of them.
5. You don’t have a support network.
There is a long list of requirements to fulfill your dream of becoming a product manager. Sometimes, this can get really confusing. The journey to your dream role can be overwhelming, lonely, and filled with self-doubt. You don’t have to do it alone. It is more efficient and fun if you have a support network.
In fact, the vast majority of people who successfully transitioned into Product Management refer to their support network of peers as the single most valuable asset that helped them handle difficult situations and stay motivated.
You can leverage online communities, like Women in Product, as a foundation for building a more intimate group of peers to support and hold each other accountable during the transition.
6. You don’t build products.
It’s nearly impossible to be a decent PM without a basic understanding of what it takes to build a product.
People who sell products on Etsy have more product management experience than you. They’ve designed and built a product, iterated their product offer, generated revenue, and found their product-market fit.
The value of personal projects is vastly understated, especially if you are just at the beginning of your career. You don’t have to code anything if you don’t have the skills, but it should not stop you from building products. It does not even have to be a digital product. Many questions in PM interviews are about physical products! Build something from scratch — a blog, an Instagram channel, a community, a piece of jewelry, or even paperless toilette paper.
If you want to build a digital product, think about teaming up with someone who is the same shoes as you are but has different skills (i.e. friends of friends who want to transition into Engineering or UX design). You will not only be learning by doing, but you will also have something tangible to share during your interviews.
The competition for entry product management positions is as high as ever. Don’t leave your career happiness to luck or someone’s mercy — put your PM hat on and execute.
“Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile.” -Abu Bakr
Thank you for reading, feel free to share your feedback on what I’ve covered. If you have further questions, please reach out to me on Linkedin. If you need more help practicing all the above, please check out She | Aspired program.
