How Much Does “Industry Experience” Matter for a Product Manager?
This is a common dilemma for many budding PMs who are in the “youth” of their career.
Pretend you’re a hiring manager looking for the next PM to help drive your digital finance product. You have two candidates on your radar who have differing profiles, with each featuring their own respective repertoires:
- Product Manager A has 3 years of experience, with 2 of them focusing on a previous finance-related business. All years provide a proven record of shipping successful features with solid metric gains, but none which incredibly stand out.
- Product Manager B has 3 years of experience and a solid track record of delivering for business success, but no finance experience whatsoever. However, they’ve shipped features which have garnered massive business return in the past, and their profile as a whole is impressive.
This is obviously simplifying things and eliminating other variables from the equation. Let’s keep it this way for the sake of this topic.
I once had this discussion with a previous mentor, who’s a Director of Product at WealthSimple, where I asked: “Shouldn’t industry experience matter more in the eyes of hiring managers and recruiters? A PM with a similar industry background will get the edge over a PM who doesn’t, no matter how good they are.”
So shouldn’t that be the reason for me to pursue a specific industry earlier in my career? For example, I love the search engine space. Just look at the potential that ChatGPT could bring which could revolutionize what a “search engine” even is. Does that mean I should pursue this space earlier in my career to get a chance to become a PM in it, even if a better PM role that brings a better fit for me lies elsewhere?
“Hold on a sec,” my mentor replied while shoving his palm to the camera on Zoom. “Things aren’t that simple.”
With his advice and what I’ve learned myself over the past few years working as a PM in big tech, here’s what I’ve gathered:
- Normally you’ll have the opportunity to pursue both — but if you can only choose one over the other (Industry experience vs. product management skills), always go for the latter.
- Anyone with similar industry experience and a proven track record of product success will often be picked over someone with the latter but not the former, but NOT ALWAYS. It’s the entire profile of the candidate that matters — a comprehensive look is usually made. Is it worth it to ramp-up the candidate to educate them on how a specific industry works, rather than just hire the other candidate who already has a related industry background? Everything’s a bet.
But most importantly…
3. Earlier in your career, focus on your PM foundations and expertise — It’ll pay dividends in the long run, where you’ll be able to trade that “career capital” in for an even better job. If you have a long-term goal of making it big in a specific industry, than obviously that’s the direction you want to be headed earlier on, but don’t get your head in a fuss if you’re still early in your PM career. Building some strong product-developing foundations first would matter more, so prioritize that.
When I say “foundations,” I mean the whole plethora of general skills anyone would want out of a PM. Design thinking, analytics, applying frameworks when applicable, prioritizing, strong leadership, and user empathy are just some of the most common traits.
Conclusion
Let’s summarize everything in actionable items:
- If you’re still not 100% clear on committing to a specific industry, focus on just becoming the best PM you can, and achieve product success no matter where you are. Build those foundations — those individual contributor skills which any team would want.
- If you DO have a specific industry you want to commit to, then shoot for the stars. Tailor your resume and go hunting for that job as needed, WITHOUT JEOPARDIZING the amount of PM skill and experience you could obtain from anywhere you land.
- If you’re looking to hop into a new industry of passion which is different than your previous experience, have faith. It may be slightly harder, but if you have a proven track record of delivering product/business success, that’s what hiring managers care most about. Many large teams are more than happy to take time on ramping you up on their specific circle of industry knowledge — you’re a long-term investment, and they know your ROI is that of a mountainous peak.
About Me
My name is Kasey, AKA J.X. Fu (pen name). I’m passionate about (you guessed it) writing, and thus I’ve found myself deep in the abyss on weeknights creating novels. I’ve written two so far: a fantasy/action/mystery, and a romance-comedy. I do this while working a full-time tech PM job during the day.
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