How do I Become a Product Manager / Implementation Specialist?

Product Manager, as a phrase, has a very broad definition. One one pole, you've got folks who are not much more than marketing people. On the other, you've got former engineers who've had the keys to the code taken away from them. Neither pole is ultimately all that effective. The best product managers steward and define future product direction and refinements. They should be measured (but often aren't) by the degree to which the changes they're championing matter - in terms of rate of adoption, breadth of adoption, impact to the company's growth and/or bottom line, etc. In my experience, what separates the good from the bad isn't the fluency at which one speaks nerd, but rather the experience/expertise to know what's possible given the other inputs (available time/resources). There are A LOT of bullshit artists in Product Management, with lots of vision, who consequently never really ship product (good orgs fire these quickly). There are fewer examples where a PM is sufficiently experienced/has enough expertise to ship, but lacks the vision to define a game changing feature (good orgs keep these, but hire an older/better one to run the group/provide vision). Neither is ideal, but given the choice, I would pick the latter 99 times out of 100. To answer your question: there's very little value in someone managing the calendar/tasks if they don't know the magnitude/degree of difficulty of those tasks. That knowledge (for whatever domain at which you're looking) is what you're currently lacking, and what you absolutely need to be good at this role. There are many paths, but consulting is a great one because it gives you the reps to see how the product is being used/abused in the real world across many different, often messy, use cases.

but rather the experience/expertise to know what's possible given the other inputs (available time/resources). This, times about a million. This makes for a terrific Product Manager/Product Owner. My mantra in this role is "focused but flexible". I have been sitting in a PO role with a digital team delivering product using Agile framework, and I *love* it. I got to say to a fairly highly-placed executive "I've always loved what I do, now I love HOW I do it". As a data point, my background is: twin bachelor's degrees (English, and Busines/Marketing minor) and a TON of background at the bank where I work. We've traditionally been a waterfall PM shop, and are moving to Agile - I raised my hand to go work on a pet project that finally got some attention when an Agile pod freed up to take the work. The PO they had in place was terrible, and the team imprinted on me like baby ducks (and vice versa, I should add). I had ZERO background in Agile, but it just resonated with me. If you had that shiver of recognition, do yourself a favor and find a way. Where I work, SMEs tend to be tapped for PO spots more often than traditional product managers - we also do a fair amount of external hiring if folks have PO experience elsewhere.

Most of our folks started out learning a particular program really, really well in a previous job, then they moved into consulting for that product within the shop that makes it, then at that point they go for product management. What programs do you use daily that people would consider you a guru at? Salesforce.com? Eloqua? Oracle? SAP? Sharepoint? Focus on learning them inside, out and backwards. Then go into consulting.

To answer a specific part of your question, you could pursue a credential such as one offered by PMI. However, to be able to sit for the PMP certification exam you http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-PMP.aspx several years managing projects under your belt and a certain number of hours you can document as project-related work. So a PMP is something you would pursue later. I'm not as familar with the other PMI credentials such as CAPM and whether they are as valuable as resume fodder as the PMP, perhaps others can comment on that.

Product Manager definitely has different meanings at different companies. However, I wonder if you'd be interested in being in the realm of customer education at a software company, based on what you say you're interested in. At my company this falls under the Customer Success department - writing help docs and blogs, doing one-on-one customer training, training the Sales and Marketing teams on new features, etc.

I've sent you a lot more blather in a DM, but TL;DR - the companies in *my* area seem to be looking for a specific framework of experience and certs, as opposed to general aptitudes, but I'm constrained by the salary range it makes sense for me to look in at my age and salary history. If you're willing and able to work for less (I'm guessing $35-$45K for starters?), I see no reason at your age that you couldn't get a stepping-stone job -- just be careful that what you take will give you the experience that will qualify you for PMP, ACCORDING TO THE PMI.

I have this job. DM me.

I have gone back and forth between product management, project and implementation management for my entire career. Right now I'm in client services which at my company is basically implementation and training management - translating between our systems, product and engineering teams and our customers. We have a separate product management function (that I work closely with but is a separate role) that's focused on making the actual product better - I focus on getting customers to use the product better. I came into it because I know the types of products I've worked with and I just have a general aptitude. I went on to get the scrum certifications and may one day do PMP but it's mostly about knowing our "field" and how customers work and then having the general aptitude and skills needed to be successful - very good communication skills, good people skills, a solid grasp of what is/isn't possible in tech (I can sniff out weird problems and translate oblique - at best - requests into actionable tasks in a way that's kind of freakish), and the most insane natural level of organization most people have ever seen so I never forget to follow up or get something done or leave something behind. Having said that - most of the time it's not easy to find exactly the right person with exactly the right skill set with a specific X, Y, Z background so I think if you have the personal qualities it comes down to knowing one type of system or software or field really well.

You should to the Scrum Masters's certification, it's only two days of entertaining common sense - then get some feelers out to see who's employing.