How to transition into Product Management
PMs explain how they made the career move and became Product Managers.
Getting your first job as a product manager is not easy. There is no obvious path like a product management college. However, talking to some PMs, you can see clear patterns to make the career move. To help more people find their way to their first product job, I asked a bunch of PMs:
"How did you get your first Product Manager role?"
I discovered that the main ways to become a PM are:
- Work in an area that collaborates with Product
- Develop deep customer understanding
- Do the work before you have the job
- Work on your skill gaps
- Look for a product in an industry you are an expert in
- Look for the (rare) internship and APM programs
- Join an early-stage startup
Work in an area that collaborates with Product
Not coincidentally, the most “obvious” path is to work closely with product managers, for example, in engineering or product design:
“I had been working with software development since college. After working in the profession for some time, I missed having more time to understand what problem I was solving and who the customers were. I was working in a squad with two other developers. It was just the three of us, no PM, PO, or other business role. So we suffered direct pressure from all sides. I looked for my leader and asked, 'I wonder if I could try acting as PM on the team?'"
– Ana Carolina Alves, Group Product Manager at Delivery Much Brasil
“I discovered (and fell in love with) the product area while working as a front-end developer. We didn’t have a dedicated Product Management function. The person who played the PM role was the CEO himself. Whenever I could, I asked how he prioritized problems and what he thought about the future. Given our size, we realized that we should create a PM function. I said I was up for the challenge.”
– Nanda Dias, Product Manager at iFood.
“I started my career as a front-end developer. Then, I did a postgraduate degree in Interaction Design, and became a UX designer. After more than 10 years in UX, already in a management position, I was much closer to product strategy. At this stage, I joined a startup to form the product team, first as a Senior UX Designer and then moving to PM, as the company’s first PM.”
– Monica Possel, Staff Product Manager at Will Bank.
But it’s not necessarily just engineering. Depending on the company, other areas outside of technology also deal with PMs daily:
“I have always worked with SEO in the marketing area, but because it is an area that demands a lot from the technology team, there was a change in structure and I went to the product team. I started exploring: I read books, took courses and workshops, but the most important thing was to get my hands dirty and put my knowledge into practice.”
– Bruna Mirkhan, Product Manager at Grupo Boticário.
“I worked in new business development at a multinational investment company. I helped foreign startups from our investment portfolio to enter the Brazilian market. It was at that time that I discovered what Product Management was and fell in love. I realized that many of the things I did were part of the responsibilities of a PM. I developed my skills with courses and reading until my first ‘yes’ arrived.”
– Erika Fer, Senior Product Manager at SumUp.
Develop deep customer understanding
Another common path is to see the migration of professionals who deal daily with the company’s customers transitioning internally to Product Management. After all, product managers need to understand a lot about the customer to perform their role well.
“After finishing a Product Management course, I started looking for opportunities. But without experience in the area, I couldn’t get a position. Then, an opportunity arose in the sales department of a startup. I decided to postpone the product dream and accept the position. Working with sales is an excellent opportunity to identify the product's pain points from the source (active and potential users). By bringing this feedback to the product teams, I was offered the opportunity to develop one of the improvements I had suggested. That’s how I moved internally to the Product Manager role.”
– Martina Scherrer, Product Lead at RD Station.
“I started my career in non-tech companies, working in auditing at an investment bank. One day, I ‘dropped everything’ and started working in a Customer Success role at a startup. In parallel to my tasks, I ran several small projects to collect data and increase collaboration between the Customer Success and Product Management departments. The people in Product roles started valuing my deep customer knowledge and contribution. When a Junior PM opportunity arose in the company, I was invited to it.”
– Gabriella De Napoli, Product Manager at iFood
Look for a product in an industry you are an expert in
“A Head of Product commented that he wanted to develop a product for the Customer Success area. He had thought of me as I worked with Customer Success, had a startup related to this target market, and had good standing with the Customer Success community through a podcast. As it was a product focused on something I was an expert in, it made sense for them to choose someone with no product experience but who knew much about the market.
– André Almeida Scaff, Senior Product Manager at Loadsmart.
“I believe the simplest paths to migrate to products are through UX, technology or business. In my case, business knowledge and marketing experience made the difference. I was hired to be PM of a financial product, and as I worked with investments and financial education, I already knew the business well. ”
– Iris Sayuri Kazimoto , Product Lead at Nubank.
“I didn’t even know what a product manager was, but I had already played the role of PM when I was responsible for a product at a startup I founded. It didn’t work out, so I returned to working with what I used to do: digital marketing. One day, I met RD Station, which made a product for digital marketing professionals. I could be a user of the product, I knew the pain points and how the customer’s world worked, part of what I needed to know as a PM at RD was already there. My startup experience was the icing on the cake for them to bet on me and for me to get into my first product role.”
– Sérgio Schüler, Head of Product at SadaPay.
Join an early-stage startup
Early-stage startups do not have well-defined roles. There is much more work than people to do, so taking on product-related responsibilities is a good opportunity.
“I joined when the startup was in the beginning and worked in many areas: support, sales, customer training, and customer success. Along the way, I learned much about customers’ pain and needs, how our product met (or didn’t) those pains, the market, the company’s strategy, and the business model. As the company grew, we began to feel the need to have someone focused on the product. At that moment, the founders invited me to create the Product department.”
– Fernanda Novak, Group Product Manager at Stone.
Look for the (rare) internship and APM programs
A more structured path is to apply for trainee, internship, or APM programs. Although more structured, this is one of the rarest paths, as few companies have programs to train product managers.
“I have a degree in Computer Science, and I had the opportunity to work on Product Management for the first time in the company's Executive Trainee program. I worked in the area of operational product management (taking care of an existing product) and also in the area of Implementation of products (creating a new product from scratch).”
– Alexandre Dedavid, Senior Data Product Manager at Addi.
“I started my professional life as a PO intern. I was assigned to a team that examined the company’s digital channels in Latin America.”
– Rawley LS Martos, Senior Product Manager at Nubank
“At the time, the company hired product interns from courses such as engineering. Coming from an engineering background emphasizing software, the technical background was my most solid pillar of knowledge.”
– Tiago Nunes Resmini, Senior Product Manager at OLX.
Practical tips for landing your first Product Manager role
In addition to the paths presented, note that several of these stories have two repeated characteristics: 1) the person sought to make up for what was missing in their knowledge, and 2) many started working as PMs before becoming PMs.
1. Work on your gaps
There are many articles about the skills, behaviors, and knowledge PMs should have. A famous one is the article by Martin Eriksson, which defines product management as the intersection between technology, user experience, and business.
Because of this eclectic mix, product management is difficult, as you need to be good in very different areas. People who want to become PMs (or who already are and are looking to improve) need to be aware of which parts of the “tripod” are strong and which need to improve, like our interviewees:
“I was experienced on the business side, so until I got my next job, which took around 9 months, I dedicated myself to improving the following skills:
1. Technical knowledge in programming: After learning the basics at engineering college, I studied Python, SQL, and object-oriented programming to communicate better and understand developers.
2. Agile Methodologies: I understood other agile methodology frameworks even better, moving away from the scrum I learned at the previous company.
3. User experience and product discovery: To learn how to identify user needs, good practices for interviews, and product usability in general (e.g., reducing steps in a registration flow can optimize conversion, or leaving the forward button closer to the bottom right corner of the screen encourages the user to continue with the flow, etc.).
4. Process mapping: It may seem silly, but many PM/PO vacancies are for a company’s internal products and processes. Understanding process mapping to identify points for improvement, as well as helping to illustrate a complex flow for the team development in complex scenarios like this, is essential.”
– Rawley LS Martos, Senior Product Manager at Nubank.
“Coming from Customer Service, I knew much about user empathy and the customer. I focused on developing PM techniques to complement my skills, such as learning more about technology, business, and metrics.”
– Mariani Cavalini, Senior Product Manager at Daki.
"For almost six months, I worked as PM and Developer in the same team. It was a moment of great learning in my career. Developing my business knowledge, getting involved with other company areas, such as marketing and sales, and maintaining a trusting relationship with my team were essential.”
– Ana Carolina Alves, Staff Product Manager at Unico ID Tech.
2. Do the work before you have the job
Another point is that because it is such a hybrid role, product management functions are often performed by people who are not PMs. There is no more powerful way to show that you can be a PM by doing part of the work that a PM would do, like:
“After 3 years working on the Customer Success team, I started participating in some experiments with the Product team. My role was to share my experience in customer service and, together with the product team, create hypotheses and design solutions to solve the problems identified. This experience was decisive for me to understand the challenges of a product team and take my first steps as a Product Manager.”
– Laiz Souza, Product Manager at RD Station.
“I was a manager at a startup. And like a good startup, I did a lot of things, some of these things were already within the scope of responsibility of a Product Manager. When I identified a role beginning to take shape in the market, I looked for all the material and courses and started directing my career towards the product area.”
– Heron Alves, Group Product Manager at Boticário.
“Product was a ‘counterintuitive’ path for someone with my background. So, I started generating value through things I knew how to do well: analyzing databases to generate insights for the business. ”
– Alexandre Dedavid, Senior Data Product Manager at Addi.
“I was a frustrated entrepreneur. I had just tested two products. When one of the other co-founders decided we were going for the third one, I decided on a new path. Around the same time, a friend asked if I knew anyone for a product position. I said: ‘me’. He said it was a vacancy for someone more experienced in Product Management, and I said, ‘I’ll go there and work for two weeks, then you’ll say whether I get the position or not.’ And that’s how I moved into the product management role.”
– Éfrem Maranhão Filho , Group Product Manager at Pipefy.
“I started my career in product, trying to be an entrepreneur. When we failed, I discovered an entire discipline beyond the "Lean Startup" book. I delved deeper into the product literature and put a lot of things into practice. I owe a lot of my PM career to the moments when I wasn’t trying to be a PM but rather trying to make a product.”
– Gabriel Werlich, Group Product Manager at Unico ID Tech.
Ideas of what you can do before taking on the role of PM:
Analyze data: For example, if you work in support, analyze support tickets and provide product teams with insights into the most common support issues.
Go beyond the customer’s request: When a customer asks for something, don't settle for just taking note of the request. Understand why the customer has this request. What is the problem behind the situation? Is it a serious problem or something nice but not essential?
Study competitors' movements: See what they are doing and try to “reverse engineer” their thinking. What problem might they be trying to solve with the launch? Why did they choose this path?
Have a side project: try to create an app, sell something, or even create your own startup. Nothing says, “Hey, I can be a product manager,” like creating a product.
Test a hypothesis: Do you have a hypothesis on how to improve the product? Try to create a test to run and show the result to the product team.
Create a narrative about what you would do differently in the product and why: Thinking about the product (and putting it on paper) is an important practice for PMs. Try to think of something you would do radically differently in the product, such as focusing on another persona, creating new functionality, creating a new product, etc., and justify it.
Closing thoughts
It's hard to transition, but not impossible. Focus on moving in the right direction, getting the skills and experience that will be useful in product management, until you get to your first role.
