Product Manager

Question

Looking to transition to a PM role and would love any advice! I have experience working with products, consulting, and strategy!

Elissa Unton · Answer

Good advice above - to add to this, we tell jobseekers who are pivoting at ArcVida to focus first on either the functional pivot (your case) or the industry pivot.   Basically, in networking conversation you'll lean on your industry experience to explain how you'll add value to the team in your new function.

Barb Hansen · Answer

Hi Andrea .. Former PM/PO and current COO here.  I will agree with Nancy's comment above, it depends. It depends on what industry you are interested in (or what industry you have experience in), size of company, and if you want to join a larger company or work for a Startup.

Lean on your current experience -- if you have a healthcare and product background, start looking for a product job in the healthcare vertical (which just happened to be my entry into the product job - I leveraged my healthcare background into a product job in the nascent days of the internet, which then lead to product jobs in different verticals and now I lead a startup as a COO - product experience is a great way to build skills).

'Product' can mean different things depending on the company and it's org structure. Sometimes Product people are more tech/engineers. Sometimes we are strategy, marketing, planning and sometimes companies want a scrum master with a twist of tech and QA requirement documentation. You just never know what skill set is required so dig into the job requirements.

If you don't have the technical background, then look for Product jobs that lean toward strategy, marketing, planning and ignore the product jobs that would have you digging into the tech/engineer side of Product (for now)

Side question? 
If you have experience in Product, why not start applying for PM jobs or asking for product-focused projects at your current job.

I'm happy to chat with you if you want to talk IRL.

Nancy McSharry Jensen · Answer

Hi Andrea, former PM and current CEO here. It depends on both the industry you're looking at (e.g. tech, consumer goods) and what companies you're targeting. Many PMs have a graduate degree combining both business  and specialization in the industry's core business (e.g. an engineering undergrad and an MBA) So you'll want to look at local industry groups and ask around about people's backgrounds and roles. There is a fantastic online resource called Women in Product hosted on Facebook. I find it skews heavily to tech and engineering but it will get you started. Good luck!

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