What advice would you give a brand new PM who is just starting their first role?
This is an excerpt from Stitch: The Best Resource Guide for Product Managers that I recently launched - over 2000 resources carefully curated and organized by product area so you can find what you need, when you need it and avoid 100s of hours Googling:
"Most Product Manager jobs are looking for 2-4 or 3-5 years of Product Management. How does one move into the role from a Program/Project Management (and Software Management) position?"
My answer...
The market right now is beyond bananas and there's no single "right way" to approach this. That also doesn't mean it's not possible.
I think there are some principles to follow:
1. Get product experience in any way you can - whether it's building your own basic product on the side (i.e. a newsletter, no-code app, whatever), joining a bootcamp program, working with a coach 1:1 to build a product, etc...
Transitioning into your first product management role can feel like this 😱
I know.
Product management is my 3rd career.
It can be especially challenging to know how to articulate the impacts you had through your previous experiences that are not necessarily product-related.
Something that can help greatly is to be conscious of the disconnect and bridge the gap for hiring teams by framing past impacts you have had through a product lens.
Several years ago, Bill and Melinda Gates happened to read a newspaper article that they just couldn’t shake — one that opened their eyes to the impact of disease in poor countries and changed their trajectory and focus...
The article was about how 800,000 kids die every year from diarrheal diseases — a figure that stands out starkly in developed nations with more advanced hygiene and medical practices.
Their empathy led to the development of many projects to support improving critical problems in the world.
5 things I've learned since I started coaching Product Managers 1:1 earlier this year:
1. There is no "normal" in product management. Every role requires you to operate in a different context with different constraints.
2. Human and team skills are your foundation, no matter what your role is. It doesn’t matter HOW good you are at hard product skills if these are lacking.
When I first started interviewing for product manager roles, I was a mess.
Before each interview I would have panic attacks, not be able to eat, and my voice and writing would be shaky.
One thing that helped significantly?
Putting together a 1-page cheat-sheet in advance that I could a) use to rehearse b) keep with me for phone interviews to quickly glance at as my anchor.
Here’s how I structure mine 👇
What tools and approaches have significantly helped you during your PM interviews?
I kicked off my newsletter, Stream of Consciousness, with some thoughts around what I wanted to put out into the world, and a lot of learnings from seeing product "under the hood" myself and through the eyes of many other product people I've worked with.
Today we just passed 1K!
While this has been the hardest year of my life for a lot of reasons, it's also been the most rewarding because of wins like this.
Thank you for supporting me and believing in my purpose - to bring products into the world and develop careers in ways that are more inclusive, holistic, ethical, accessible, and sustainable.