How to become a product manager is on top of the minds of many people. And in particular, how do I become a product manager with no product management experience?
No wonder people are interested in becoming a product manager considering the fantastic opportunity to work on innovative concepts, fresh products, and hot technologies. According to the Wall Street Journal, even among ivy league MBAs, the most sought after career is one of a product manager.
There are many reasons for striving to become a Product Manager:
- Ability to conceptualize, build, and launch products people love.
- A tremendous sense of accomplishment and ownership.
- Opportunity to work with multi-functional teams.
- And last but not least, an excellent salary and benefits package with an opportunity to make more money through equity options (assuming you work for a startup or a high growth firm.) According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a product manager is $109,000.
- Product management can be an excellent training and proving ground to aspire for higher-level executive roles.
Before you start your journey to becoming a product manager, understand what the intersection of your skills, and aptitude with the types of product manager roles is.
- A product manager with a focus on the business side of things. But within this, there are two options – outbound product manager and inbound product manager.
- A technical product manager.
- A product manager in technology or tech-enabled company.
- Product management or as they call it Brand Management roles in traditional FMCG firms (Fast Moving Consumer Products) like Procter and Gamble or Unilever.
Irrespective of your specific reason for wanting to become a product manager, your current situation may fall into one of these categories – you have some experience as a product manager or have no prior experience as a product manager. If you are already a product manager, you may be more interested in becoming a great product manager (or land at another firm known for product management and the opportunities.)
Let’s address the latter, where without any experience, you are interested in becoming a product manager with no experience. It is tough to break into product management without any experience and while it not impossible, it is a challenging road ahead. Your specification situation may fall into one of the following brackets. You may be:
- In school, and want to land a job as a product manager.
- In an unrelated career and want to join product management.
- You are in a related career and want to switch gears to become a product manager.
- You want to go back to graduate school with the intent of breaking into product management.
Tips for How to Become a Product Manager if you are in Undergraduate College:
Take courses in business, economics, marketing, and computer science – depending on your interests, major, and course availability.- Take some online courses about product management (and of course, if your college or university offers such courses.)
- Join any club that focuses on building and launching businesses/products such as the entrepreneurs club, student investment fund, etc. (You may also consider joining a local interest group.)
- Join LinkedIn and start building a network, particularly with professionals in product management. You can contribute to LinkedIn blogs and post your critique of products. This may show your ability to comprehend and critique products constructively.
- Develop a side gig – drop-ship e-commerce, podcasts, content/blogging, Youtube channel, website building – which showcases your ability to conceptualize, build, launch, and manage something. (The outcome here does not matter, and of course, you will not need a product position if your gig takes off and lands you acquisition or an acqui-hire offer.
- Participate in online challenges and build a profile.
- Build your resume to target product management internships.
- Network with product management professionals and request informational interviews.
Tips for switching career tracks and becoming a Product Manager:
If you are in an unrelated career – retail sales, teaching, lawyer, circus clown, professional juggler, or whatever – and want to get your dream job in product management, it is a bit tough but not impossible. Of course, it also depends on how much experience you have in the unrelated career – 2 years or 20 years – where more extensive experience may make it tighter.
- Read books – entrepreneurial success stories, product launch stories, management concepts, and frameworks.
- Take courses relating to product management. The specific courses depend on your affordability, proximity to the educational institutions, and your aptitude. For example, you can take classes at Udemy where you can learn a course for as little as $12.99. https://www.udemy.com/topic/product-management. Or you can go to a top college or university that offers a product management certificate such as Cornell (https://info.ecornell.com/product-management) or Berkeley (https://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/product-management). Or you can go to specialized programs such as Product School. (https://www.productschool.com/) and General Assembly (https://generalassemb.ly/education/product-management-remote-online)
- Expand your professional network to product management professionals.
- Work on a side project that showcases your ideation, product definition and development, go-to-market, and management skills. (Again, as we mentioned before, if this becomes successful, you may never need a job.)
- Go back to Graduate School to get an MBA, which could help in opening the doors to a product management position.
- If there are product management positions within your company, reach out to the hiring managers and request what it will take for you to apply and move laterally (or even a step-down.)
- Write a blog that reviews products and services in an industry/sector of your choice and showcases your innate understanding of the field and offers your critique on how to make things better. (You are not writing these reviews/critiques as a fan or as a disgruntled consumer, but as an objective bystander/analyst.) Use product management (and strategy/management) frameworks and jargon in your critiques.
- Look for an allied position that is closer to product management – such as product marketing, market research, UXD so that you are a step closer to achieving your dream of becoming a product manager.
Tips for Becoming a Product Manager from a Related Career Track:
First, you are in a better position than others who are trying to get into becoming a product manager without any prior experience. So, that’s a plus. But still, you will need to make the leap, and here are some suggestions to become a product manager from a related job.
- Excel in your current job. Hiring managers in the product will not be super open to hiring a mediocre person or a person who mopes about their current role. While performing well at your current job, there are ways to show interest and demonstrate competence that you belong in a product management job.
- Take online courses in product management. From Udemy to Coursera, from Cornell to Berkeley, from Product School to General Assembly, there are many options to learn product management discipline. (Please look here for a comprehensive list of product management courses and certificates.)
- Build relationships with your product management peers and ask questions and seek to understand. Show genuine enthusiasm for their work and learn the intricacies of the job.
- As a part of your job, engage with the product team, and offer constructive suggestions and feedback. Do not just be a cheerleader or a bore but focus on how you can help without sounding you are better than the product team.
- Let your boss know about your interest in product management as well as the product executives who make hiring decisions.
- Apply to the jobs where you feel you have the qualifications, competences, and requisite skills, even though not the hands-on experience. Prepare well for such interviews, including several articles, courses, and coaching sessions about how to crack product management interviews.
Tips for those interested in going to Graduate School to break into Product Management:
Education is always rewarding, and there may be several benefits down the road. For example, your ivy league MBA may ultimately prove to be a great asset when you ascend the corporate echelons.
However, please realize that some of the top MBA schools do not teach practical product management skills. Some universities offer product management track, and if so, that could be a great way to parlay specific education in product to a landing a product role.
Even in cases where you are off to a top school in pursuit of a degree, other suggestions in this article will apply to you.
Furthermore, if you are interested in a technical product management role, an advanced degree in technical disciplines will be extremely beneficial.
General Suggestions to all Categories of Aspirants who want to land a Product Management Position:
Product Management Skills and Competencies:
Depending on the type of product manager role, the seniority, and the industry, please try to advance your skills in some of the following areas:
- Strategic Thinking
- Analytical Prowess
- Facilitation
- Communication
- Understanding of the language and terminology of product management
- Ability to use productivity tools (Excel, PowerPoint, Canva, Tableau, InVision, Aha/ProdPad, etc.)
Product Manager Salary Averages:
According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a product manager in 2020 is as follows along with the salary for product management jobs at a few specific firms:
| Average | $ 108,992 |
| $ 159,493 | |
| Cisco | $ 143,547 |
| Microsoft | $ 123,458 |
| Amazon | $ 119,244 |
| $ 163,743 |
Product Manager Job Boards:
Product Management Communities:
LinkedIn Group for Product Managers
Reddit Product Management Subgroup
Product Management Personalities:
Marty Cagan https://twitter.com/cagan
Nir Eyal https://twitter.com/nireyal
SC Moatti https://twitter.com/scmoatti
Dan Olson https://twitter.com/danolsen
Janna Bastow https://twitter.com/simplybastow?lang=en
Ryan Hoover https://twitter.com/rrhoover
Melissa Perri https://twitter.com/lissijean
Ken Norton https://twitter.com/kennethn
Product Management Books: