As a product manager, I frequently hear from aspiring PMs that want to know how I got into product management. They are especially interested in how I managed to break into product management without a traditional PM background. In conversations with them, I began to uncover some beliefs they hold about what it takes to become a product manager. These beliefs often center around the idea that in order to become a product manager, one needs to have a technical background that consists of a computer science or engineering degree, or that they need to head back to school to get an MBA in order to be qualified for a product management role. Though those things might be true for specific technologies you may want to work on as a PM, they are not prerequisites for becoming a product manager.
In thinking more about these conversations, I was confronted with the fact that I too held some of these same beliefs. When starting in product management, I felt overwhelmed with doubt [Hello imposter syndrome, my dear friend]. I remember feeling not qualified, not technical enough and not smart enough which led to feeling like a fraud. These feelings were often compounded by being the only woman in the room and often times the only queer person. Taking time to unpack these beliefs gave me the chance to show myself compassion and grace. I’ve moved beyond finding my voice to now focusing on how to use it to be heard. It’s a work in progress but I am leaning into difficult and challenging conversations which push me to trust myself more.
I decided to reflect on my career journey so far to show how my non-traditional background did not stop me from becoming a product manager. Not only do I hope this helps others, it’s a good reminder to myself of all the skills I’ve learned along the way.
Let’s take a trip back in time.
In college, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my career. I chose a business degree with a focus on accounting, as I felt business was broad enough to allow me to figure it out as I went. After graduation, I started a career as a public auditor with Deloitte. I felt challenged by the work, enjoyed working with numbers and also important for a college grad… I was making money!
Two years later, after passing my certification becoming a certified public accountant I realized that I did not want a long term career in accounting (the timing, am I right?). At that moment, I felt like I had wasted 2 years trying to figure out “what I wanted to be when I grew up”. I know now not a single moment was wasted.
As an auditor I sharpened my skills in:
- asking questions → It is part of the job to question processes and gather the right information. I learned how to ask the most important questions knowing my time with the client was limited and too many of the wrong questions would become an annoyance.
- getting comfortable with ambiguity → Auditing is not about perfect balancing of accounts and matching of ledgers, it’s about getting close enough and justifying the rest relative to the assessed risk (this was really uncomfortable at first !!). I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable; and be okay with not getting an answer as to why the balances didn’t match perfectly.
- prioritization → At the time I was spending a total of about 3 hours a day commuting; time became a limited resource and I had to focus on what was most important and meaningful to me.
The next stop in my career journey was 2 years as a high school math teacher. After realizing I did not want to continue my career as a public auditor, I pivoted to follow my passion. In college I had always been drawn to teaching and had a specific interest in linguistics and language acquisition. I thought there was no better time than the present to follow my passion and what I felt was my calling. Teaching was one of the most challenging but rewarding careers in my life so far. I never felt more connected to my purpose and experienced the impact of my role each and every day. After 2 years in the classroom I knew education was a core part of my purpose, though I realized that the classroom may not be the environment where I could grow long term, at least at that point in my life.
As a teacher, I developed my skills in:
- verbal communication → Teaching relies heavily on clear and engaging communication; a student’s attention is captured, not required, and yes I may have a song about angles to get my students engaged in learning.
- empathy → Don’t assume anything (chances are you are wrong) and instead seek to understand. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn when you are curious and listen. Understanding my students feelings and motivations was key to cultivating trust and unlocking learning
- adaptability → Nothing ever goes according to plan; oh you planned a 45 minute highly interactive activity for the class? What a great day for a fire drill. Now you have 20 minutes to achieve the same objectives for the lesson.
Leaving the classroom was bittersweet but the transition to my next stop felt like a natural progression in my career. Joining an edtech company as a CSM allowed me to stay connected to education (my clients were K-12 school districts) while finding ways to grow myself personally and professionally. My confidence soared as I established strong partnerships with my clients and colleagues and took on new challenges.
As a Client Success Manager, I strengthened my skills in:
- being customer focused → My literal job was ensuring the success of clients in my portfolio; customer focused does not mean the customer is always right and saying yes, it means digging in to uncover your customers goals and motivations and guiding them to reach those goals using your products and services
- problem solving → Focusing on customers’ success with your product means getting creative. Sometimes problem solving meant putting together a pivot table with insights for your customer, or finding a viable work around for a product gap. But even the best solutions and workarounds are never successful if you are not solving the actual problem
- written communication → I spent many hours reading & writing emails to customers. The best emails were those that were clear, succinct and organized in a digestible manner with clear next steps.
A year into my role as a client success manager, I was becoming frustrated by some of the “quirks” of the product and bugs I was navigating alongside my clients. I vividly remember one issue a customer was facing that the product and engineering team was requesting we solve manually via data manipulation by the customer success manager (which was me). The frustration became a source of motivation and I made a passionate case focused on the customer about the risks and long-term consequences of manipulating the customer data to solve their issue in the short-term. I backed this up with customer impact, quantified the cost to have a CSM manually intervene and suggested a path forward that would not only benefit my customer but all of our customers. Regardless of the outcome, I felt a sense of purpose and challenge, and thought about how I might lean into this more. I thought about the impact I could have bringing the voice of the customer closer to our product decisions and continued to submit compelling product feedback tickets to the team. This experience was affirmed when just weeks later, my proposal was adopted and implemented for all customers just in time for our busy season. Later after joining the product team I came across documentation where our VP of Product specifically mentioned the points I made in my proposal that influenced the ultimate decision. Talk about validation!
Shortly after, a role opened within the company for an associate product manager. I remember thinking that this was my opportunity to push myself to demonstrate my abilities to succeed as a PM. At the same time, I felt not ready [oh Imposter Syndrome, you again?]. I knew I had to seize the moment and at least try by interviewing for the role. The interview was a collaborative experience where I was able to work through a prioritization exercise with a panel as well as talk about how I would go about setting the criteria for an MVP of a product. Though I was being interviewed, and typically would be the one answering questions, I instead leaned into asking questions (!!) to the interviewers. I clarified assumptions and asked probing questions to help shape my approach. As questions were answered in the moment, I was able to adapt my thinking to incorporate this new information. I stayed focused on the customers’ motivations, needs and problems. I left the interview feeling accomplished and equally anxious to learn the next steps. A week or so after interviewing, I was formally offered the job and started my career in Product Management. I remember the VP sharing with me that she appreciated my ability to both zoom in (think tactically about what is possible with the information and priorities today) and zoom out (think big and have a vision for the future of what is possible) when working through the MVP for a product launch. When interviewing for my second product management role, these same skills proved successful. By not setting the expectation to have the right answer to questions in the interview, I was able to stay present, seek to understand and ask clarifying questions to arrive at an answer given the context of the prompts.
Though it was an overwhelming transition in my career that included a lot of change and took time for me to feel established as a product manager, I am exactly in the role I was meant to be in. Each day is a new opportunity to learn, grow and have my assumptions challenged. There is something special about being able to work closely with an incredible team of engineers and designers creating solutions to solve customers’ pain points. One of my favorite parts is getting to watch features come to life during the development cycle, and of course seeing the delight and excitement when customers finally get to utilize the feature. Helping solve problems is hugely rewarding especially when you see the impact on those whose lives have been made better as a result.
If you are an aspiring product manager who believes that you don’t have the background to become a PM, I challenge you to look at your career and experiences so far. You probably have more product skills than you think. Yes, you read that right – YOU – might have what it takes to become a PM. Start by reflecting on your experiences so far and make a list of all the skills you’ve learned with some examples. Take time to understand your motivation for becoming a product manager too as this will help you uncover any other assumptions you have about becoming a PM. Remember, for skills you want to develop, it is never too late to learn them and explore adjacent roles that can get you closer to becoming a PM. Don’t underestimate the power of relationship building and networking. Aside from building your communication and “soft” skills, you will learn a ton of insights and context from PMs across a range of experiences.
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It’s important to note that how I got into product management is my journey and evolution of my skills. Each person’s journey will look different, so the goal is not to copy someone else’s path but to learn and reflect on the ways your experiences and skills learned along the way can get you closer to realizing your goal.