Thread by @IAmSAIA

I’ve been meeting a ton of younger / newer PMs, and when I ask them why they’re interested in the field, they give these canned responses about enjoying working in teams, influencing without authority, enjoying legos when they were kids... 😌

Growing up in Nigeria, the common joke was that you could either be a lawyer, doctor, engineer, or disgrace to the family. Naturally, we all had canned responses for one of the non-disgrace options. But hadn’t really thought about what we wanted for ourselves.

The MBAs / CS graduates I meet these days make #prodmgmt sound like one of the non-disgrace career options I heard when I was a child.

It’s a solid choice, and if you know enough about it, choosing it is in of itself a humble brag (ie I love teams, leading w/o influence etc).

This is probably more of an observation (or opinion rather) about how to make careers choices, but I wish more people would optimize their careers for learning more about *themselves* before riding the wave of the latest hot job trend.

Choose #prodmgmt (at a product driven team) because for the fact that’s it’s hard, and it’ll stretch you as a leader (and a human) in ways you simply won’t get in any other function.

Choose #prodmgmt because you love technology, but love how how technology can be *applied* to solve problems even more.

Choose #prodmgmt because the #productmanagers are literally shaping the world with all the decisions we make (and biases we have) about what and how we build—and you believe your perspective is critical.

Choose #prodmgmt (as a path to or training for #entrepreneurship) because white cisgender American college educated people cannot and should not be left alone to define which problems really matter, which problems are worth solving.

Choose #prodmgmt because you derive fulfillment — DEEP fulfillment (because that sh*t is hard) — facilitating experts to deliver more than they ever believed they could, together, as a team.

There are so many AMAZING reasons to work in #prodmgmt. But because it’s so hard (and also relatively young as a field, so at times dysfunctional), I want people to *choose* it, with eyes wide open.

#productmanagers can come from anywhere. There are so many different paths to product, as well as so many paths FROM product to other passions. #prodmgmt can be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling career. But it’s not for everyone.

So don’t just read Medium blogs—talk to as many PMs as you can. Get them to share what they love about product, but also the parts they don’t enjoy. You don’t need to become an expert in #prodmgmt to pursue it as a career, but learning the mindset of a PM is key.