Let's say a programmer was looking to make that change. Where would he start? Are there training programs? What kind of company would provide a gentle introduction? Is it easier to navigate the politics of a small company creating their own product compared to a large consulting company that provides staff augmentation services?
This is a story about a developer going to project management from developer.
Speaking from the experience of a friend, they started out by talking with their manager that they did not want to be a developer in the long term. Shortly thereafter, the manager announced to the team that the developer was going to start taking on project management tasks (like managing the project using Microsoft Project and leading the scrum daily stand ups). They continued in that capacity until they officially became project manager for another team. Now, years later, they are still managing but managing managers and a much larger team overall.
One thought is to start doing it. Just start cutting out time to do pm stuff: research competitors. Make a presentation highlighting a competitors feature. Dig into your products analytics and do your own analysis. Attend a usability study. Pilot one if your company doesn’t do them. Brainstorm a new feature, solicit feedback, present the results. Ask existing pms about their jobs, what they need help with. Etc. If you like doing this stuff, you’ll get good at it. At the very least you will be more qualified for the role when you do officially get it.
You pretty much have to job hop. Look for opportunities to help sales with customer conversations. if you can be a bridge from engineering to the business then you will have a lot of value in the position. Communication is critical. You have to be able to make people feel your solution is not best. Peoole do not care what is technically best. They want to feel something is the best. And that is a hard but to crack because every customer is different.
There are some technical product management positions. If you are looking for training and feel like that route and MBA will almost certainly set you down that path. Though I did not and got to a PM position. Luck is also involved. Haha
Disagree, many companies have a way for engineers to pivot into product. The hardest part is having a frank conversation with your manager. I’ve seen many engineers become PMs within the same company
I'll share my experiences becoming a PM outside of a formal program like APM. I started out as an intern and now I'm a junior PM.
You're slightly moving the goalpost with your comment, because it's not necessary to go through formal training to be a PM. Engineers are tangentially involved in the product process pretty much always. The transition is essentially about taking more responsibility over the product and spending more time driving product vision as opposed to building. Passing a PRD to your manager if you thought a feature could be done better was encouraged at my last job.
Your manager will often support you doing this. Then, if you've been doing this well, you can speak about making a change to the PM role because you've proved yourself. If your manager does not support you doing this or the company doesn't need another person in a product role, then you might need to make a change.
FYI large companies accept internal applications for their APMs, which is a formal training program, albeit pretty much for junior employees only.
If you are in a role where you could be involved in the decision making of the product(s) you work on, getting involved in that [initially informally] is definitely the best way.
Be knowledgeable about metrics/kpis (and help create them if they don't exist), help your teammates grow through coaching, and work your way to be involved in those product discussions.
If you're not in such a position, try looking for a new job. So many companies need product managers and if you come clear on your ambitions, it seems to be easy to get past that initial wall.
