Transitioning to Product Management
Over the past couple of days and weeks, I have gotten a number of questions, about my transition into product management, and individuals interested in transitioning to product management.
In this article, I attempt to share my journey from Customer Support to Product Management. This context may or may not apply to you but I hope this serves as some sort of guideline in your transition journey.
Landing a job a Customer/Product Support
I spent the first two years of my career as a Customer Support Staff. This was my first job out of school thanks to referrals.
In this role, my day-to-day tasks involved speaking to clients via calls and emails to provide clarity, solve problems, and request feedback on specific features and different products..
As a customer support staff, empathy, communication, and quick thinking were key in resolving complaints and dealing with customers. There were days in which you had best-behaved customers and other days you were not so lucky. At every turn, I had to remember that the customer is king and should be treated as such no matter what.
While working in Customer Support, collaboration with the engineering team was inevitable. Feedback from the customers had to be relayed to the product team to fix bugs and improve the entire product experience. My favorite part of the job was data analysis.
Career Switch?
Although I enjoyed my job as a Product support staff, I was starting to get too comfortable and decided to set a new goal for myself. . , I began to ask myself what my plan was and how my career was going to grow.
There were a lot of possibilities for me and a ton of directions my career could go in and this made me super confused. I started speaking to friends and colleagues. One thing that stood out was product Management. However, product and project management were used interchangeably and I wasn’t clear on the difference.
While trying to figure out the difference between these two fields, I took a certification course in Project Management And started researching on product management, Google and Medium became my best friends. I literally attended most Product meetups in Lagos just to fully grasp what Product Management entails, to network, and also for opportunities. At the end of December 2018, my goal was to land a role as a Product Manager
Yay! Product Management!
By September 2019, I was able to transition into a Product Manager role at Softcom. I’ve detailed my experiences and lessons in this article.
Am I a technical product manager? It depends on the context of who is asking. In my experience, I’m able to understand and communicate effectively with engineers and grasp some engineering questions. In situations where I’m not clear, I tend to ask a LOT of questions.
Here are my thoughts on steps to transition into a Product Management Role:
- Research: Before transitioning, I would recommend that you do lots of research. This can range from reading books, blogs, listening to podcasts, asking questions. It is also important to know what type of product manager you would like to become. This would come in handy. Expectations of Product Managers tend to differ depending on the company. However, there are shared skills across companies.
- Take Courses and Training: Courses and training attempt to help understand product management concepts and basics you need to know. In my experience, I took the ProductDive training and it was a great one. You get to understand the basic product management concepts, issues product managers face. You can reach to @TobiOtokiti on Twitter
- Skills Mapping: Like I earlier mentioned, expectations of product managers tend to differ based on the company. However, there are key skills required to perform effectively as a product manager. Some of this includes: communication, empathy, collaboration, problem-solving
- Shadow a Product Manager: While reading and researching are key to your transition journey, the hands-on experience is invaluable. This is basically learning under the guidance of an experienced manager. You tend to get a clear picture of the day-to-day activities of a PM, problems they might face, and how they navigate this. If you are unable to secure an experienced PM, you can brainstorm solutions for problems people face and attempt to build them. I personally recommend this.
Conclusion
There is no better time to make a decision than now. If you have any questions or issues, please let me know. You can leave a comment on send a dm on Twitter!
Recommended Reading
- State of Product Management in Africa Report, Practical Product
- The Product Manager and the 7Ps of Marketing, ProductDive
- The Art of Prioritization, Practical Product
- You are not your user, Mind The Product
