How do I become a product manager?

This is a great question! Personally, and from my experience working with product managers in different areas, I'd say that you definitely need to start with the love of building products. In terms of skills, you don't necessarily need to be the best developer, or the best in any given area, but rather be a jack-of-all-trades who's able to talk with business & marketing people as well as designers or developers. As the product manager, your role is to be the interpret between those who build the product, those who market & sell it, those who support it, and to an extent, those who use it. At http://nalpeiron.com/analytics, we work with product managers at software companies and offer them a way to measure how their software is being used, and help them understand their users. Give me a shout if you'd like to learn more. For general resources about , feel free to check out our blog and also, definitely check out http://www.mindtheproduct.com/ as well!

Hi there, That's a very common question. I've written a little tidbit here which you may find of help: https://medium.com/@dreasaez/so-you-want-to-be-a-product-manager-part-1-be09733e896 In essence, product management is a very new field. We're all still learning about it, so get out there and talk to others. The best thing you can do is read, learn, read some more, and network!

First, thank you for the A2A. A little bit about my career arc to give you context.  I did my BE (Comp. Engg) from India, then my MS (CS) from the US many years ago. I then worked for several years at Bell Labs (this was during the firm's glory days, there was no Google then) - picked this job from multiple offers I had when I graduated. I started out as a software engineer in a concept center - built prototypes using leading edge technologies, transitioned from there to a software architect, then became a lead architect, then led multiple teams around the world of some ~40-50 people, worked with product managers etc, and finally, before I quit that job, was handpicked to report to a CTO to help solve big picture product strategy, product suite road-mapping, architecture, solution design, customer consulting, M&A, product rationalization, and related problems. My experience is, and looking at what you've stated in your question it appears you are in a similar situation, you have excellent technical skills that are immediately valuable to the good technical firms. Once you get in and do a good job, you will learn more business related skills, and grow in confidence. You become even more valuable as an employee to the firm, and increase and improve your options in terms of what you can do going forward. And then, you make the leap. Your passion for the path you choose will dictate how soon you make the transition. Usually, it takes a few years and a promotion or two before you make the grade into positions of greater business responsibility like the ones you are looking for. An MBA from a top 5 school might help hasten the timelines some. Good luck!

The short cut is to do a course in MBA, then look for a product firm to join. This is trickier than it sounds, because many firms which claim to be product firms, are mostly building white label solutions for bigger brands. The first thing is to learn Market research. You need to understand what it is that the market is looking for, what are the various techniques/technologies around for launching new products and what is it that each geography requires.   Then you start with a SWOT analysis of the competition, and start building wireframes of what the final product will look like.   Start with a community who will give you feedback, then you launch in the market.

This one gets asked a million times but I think the most rapid route to it is to gain a lot of market expertise in a specific domain and its needs. You can do that from a bunch of customer facing roles or on your own if no one will let you (this is what startup founders do). A lot of companies will favour a product leader who has deep domain expertise over PM experience (since this more rapidly translates to strategic plans and solutions to customer problems) versus the opposite. You can learn PM theory and practice after / as you go. Although the same can be said for understanding market problems, and maximizing both would be ideal, usually the preference is for deep industry insight.

There are a lot of wonderful programs where you can learn the finer points of product management all over the country. Here's a link to our listings for https://www.coursereport.com/tracks/product-manager-bootcamp. And here are some specific programs you could consider: https://www.coursereport.com/schools/general-assembly (It has tons of locations) https://www.coursereport.com/schools/tradecraft (San Francisco) https://www.coursereport.com/schools/product-school(San Francisco, NYC, Silicon Valley) https://www.coursereport.com/schools/brainstation(Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, Ottawa) https://www.coursereport.com/schools/koru(Seattle, Boston, San Francisco) Finally, we published a post on our blog exploring some of these options: https://www.coursereport.com/blog/learn-product-management-at-these-5-bootcamps I hope this helps!

1. Learn the basic skills of the profession2. Read books and follow newsletters and LinkedIn group3. Do some Product Management work pro-bono and get some experience4. Network at Product Management Associations5. Beef up and differentiate on your resume6. Get to know the Product Managers in your companyThe https://280group.com/ recently published a blog post which will explain each of these in more detail: https://280group.com/product-management-blog/how-to-become-a-product-manager-six-strategies-to-land-the-job/

I came upon product management through a different path. Sometimes it is easier to accumulate skills and theory from a degree program and sometimes from actual experience. I took the degree path for marketing (in general) and did volunteer work as a sysadmin and Windows White Box builder of servers for my technical knowledge. That was the easier path. ONce I got a job at a computer company in partner management, I began to do product management of a stacked solution.  Most companies do not organize product management of stacked solutions but only on single solutions.  I was able to launch six stacked solutions By osmosis, I began to learn (on the job) what product management is over the five years of work in the industry. There are few, if any, degree programs that extensively study product management. There are some industry type education programs but even these programs will not give an employer total confidence that you know what you are doing. Practical experience is absolutely the best kind of background. Richard Hom   Connect on LinkedIn

In order to become a product manager, you need to enhance your professional profile. Here are few important steps you should follow. 1. Acquire required skills Here are the most required skills employers are looking for, prioritized by their importance, based on the analysis of thousands of product manager job posts: Product Management Product Development Agile Methodologies Project Management Product Strategy Product Marketing Market Research Start with evaluating your current skill set and identify your missing skill. There are many relevant online and offline learning resource out there, to gain these missing skills. Here are some relevant resources to start with: 2 free courses for learning the essentials of product management: https://www.udemy.com/productmanagement101/?dtcode=bFTW3vy2pyCT https://www.udemy.com/product-management/?dtcode=QlLF18G2pyDa If you want to learn more about Agile Methodologies, here are some recommended resources: Intro: Tutorial: A recommended course for acquiring Product Management skill-set: https://www.udemy.com/productmanagement/?couponCode=start19&ccManual=&dtcode= 2. Stay updated with latest industry updates. Read relevant articles and professional material to gain as much relevant knowledge as you can. 3. Grow your professional network. Get connected with product managers and with other key players from the industry. Here are few effective ways to do that: Attend relevant meetups. Attending meetups is a way to get to know people from the industry, grow your network and to ask questions and get advice. You can find relevant meetups here: http://product-management.meetup.com/ Join relevant LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn groups is a great way to meet relevant people from the industry and to create initial connections. Here are few groups that may interest you https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1770182&trk=vsrp_groups_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A445702341427372513991%2CVSRPtargetId%3A1770182%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=744067&trk=vsrp_groups_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A445702341427372513991%2CVSRPtargetId%3A744067%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary Get connected with relevant people in LinkedIn. 4. Use your existing network to locate relevant people who can mentor you and give you professional advice and lead you to become an art director. 5. Try to gain relevant experience. Consider taking projects (even for free), or even a short internship. I'm a co-founder at https://www.reskill.me/?utm_source=content&utm_medium=LI&utm_campaign=Product_Manager. Our mission is to guide people step by step to their desired job. You can visit https://www.reskill.me/?utm_source=content&utm_medium=LI&utm_campaign=Product_Manager and get a free step by step personalized guidance for becoming a product manager and it's completely free.