Engineer to Product Manager

Got a lot of interesting pings from people after my recent job switch post. These were people with 4-5 yrs of experience to recent graduates and all had the same question, how did you become a manager ? I went on to ask a few of them why they want to become a manager to which they said its the next logical progression in career and managers exercise more authority, get paid more and the work requires less effort.

Wouldn't lie I felt the same way up until an year ago despite having had no first hand experience of this phenomenon ! So I made it a goal to switch lines as soon as possible. But after studying about product management from books and podcasts I realised there is so much more to it than meets the eye. So sharing my learnings for people looking for a switch into management.?

1. Management is not a job profile ??

Do you wish to be a product manager, people manager, engineering manager, project manager, delivery manager etc. ? So read about the type of management profiles and see which one you like.

2. Product manager is not above others in the team ??

A PM is just like any other member of the product team. Just like the engineer is responsible for the system, PM is responsible for the product. You guys have different specialisations but working on same product at the same level. I saw this in both my previous and current workplace. The respect is mutual in the team and everyone is equally important. If that's not the case maybe the work env is not healthy.

3. Each field has opportunities to grow ??

Be it a designer, engineer, QA, everyone has a related management roles in their domain. So try to do more research about these progressions and stick to what you enjoy doing.

4. Huge responsibility ??

Product success is everyone's success in the team while product failure is sole responsibility of the PM. You need to be part of market research, user interviews, design, execution, testing, marketing, sales and make sure the product is in perfect shape to go out and then hope that users like it. Haven't had this experience myself yet since I'm in a shadowing role right now but that's what the best PMs say. So it's not as easy as it seems.?

I switched to the PM role because I want to create products that enrich the lives of people and I have experience with user demands and expectations in the EdTech sector having taken some initiatives in it myself.?

I'm still learning. Lot's more to explore and improve my understanding. Have any comments or suggestions ? Would love to hear from you guys ??