There's no "one weird trick" to getting into product
“How can I become a product manager if I don’t have any experience in product?”
When talking with people about what I do, this question probably comes up the most.
It feels like a catch-22. Having product experience makes you more attractive to someone looking for a product manager. But you can’t get product experience if you’ve never been hired as a product manager.
Neither of these statements is entirely true, but that’s how it feels from the outside.
There’s no one piece of advice, no “one weird trick” to crack the catch-22 (actually there is: understanding that neither of the sentences is actually true – but that really only becomes apparent when you’re on the other side).
But I have observed some things about myself and others who have broken into product from outside tech.
It starts with being lucky.
It takes luck
People often interpret luck as describing something that is out of your control and so you should give up trying. The first part is true. The future is uncertain and trying to control the future is like trying to nail the tide to the beach.
Uncertainty is beautiful. To live in uncertainty requires us to become perpetually humble learners. Instead of chronically fearing, dreading, or ignoring the inevitable surprises and shocks to come, what shall we do with them? We could try examination and exploration.
Aside from reducing your anxiety and focusing your attention on the things you can control, this attitude will come in handy with the second part.
Because, you see, the second part, about giving up, is a lie.
There’s a classic aphorism “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” It’s often attributed to Seneca the Younger, a Stoic philosopher in ancient Rome. It turns out he never actually said this phrase, but it does contain a deep kernel of wisdom (and is pretty easy to remember).
What Seneca did write was something a little more nuanced. He was quoting a friend of his, Demetrius the Cynic about what makes a good wrestler:
“The best wrestler,” he would say, “is not he who has learned thoroughly all the tricks and twists of the art, which are seldom met with in actual wrestling, but he who has well and carefully trained himself in one or two of them, and watches keenly for an opportunity of practicing them.”
So while the future is uncertain, there actually is a lot we can do about it.
Breaking it down, there are two parts: Preparation and Opportunity.
Let’s dig into them further.
Preparation (“Training yourself”)
"OK. I need to get better at some things. I know that. Do I take courses? Do I learn to code?"
The short answer is no. I tried this route. There are too many skills that you might need that it would be impossible to learn them all before you need them. It’s also incredibly difficult to learn a skill that you have no reason to apply.
The important things to be training on are the things that take lots of time to learn. If you want to get a hired to do product, you want to have a skill that is differentiated (i.e. one that makes sense for the job that others don’t have). Developing a skill that takes a few weeks or months to learn means it is also easier for others to learn and so it will be harder for you to differentiate yourself.
So what are those things?
I’m indebted to 2 product leaders for the answer to this question. First Sarah Butterfass, who was the Chief Product Officer at Groupon where I was working at the time. She was asked a question during a Q&A about what she looks for when hiring product managers (I’m paraphrasing since this was almost a decade ago and the Q&A wasn’t recorded):
“I look for two things: empathy and the desire and willingness to learn.”
That’s it.
Not tech experience, not domain expertise, not the ability to code or do agile or project management. Those things are helpful, but they aren’t the things she looks for.
The ability to empathize means you’re able to connect with your customers and understand what they’re going through as well as your teammates to understand what they need to build a great product.
A “desire and willingness to learn” essentially means curiosity. If you’re a curious person, you’ve got humility, you’re intellectually flexible, and you’re a good listener. As a PM, you’re constantly in novel situations (either to you or to the world). If you’re curious, you’ll be able to identify what you don’t know and go figure out how to learn that thing.
Second, from Shreyas Doshi in a tweet that contains so much valuable insight about product that I still can’t believe it fit into a single tweet and is free for anyone on the internet to read:
Product Management
Role: Define the product & orchestrate actions across the org to enable its success
Success: User adoption & satisfaction Business impact
Key skills: Critical thinking Cognitive empathy Influential communication
Key traits: Openness Deep care High agency
Every great product manager has different specialities. Some are very technical, others are big picture thinkers, some specialize in growth or marketplaces or B2B SaaS. But all of them have those skills and traits.
They take time to develop (and many people never develop them at all). This makes them valuable. And you will stand out if you develop them.
Most importantly (and I'm going to bold this next phrase and preface it with this parenthetical to emphasize that if there's one thing you should take away from this whole post it's this next phrase) those skills and traits can be practiced no matter what you're doing.
You don't need to be in product to hone those those qualities, but if you want to get into product you should hone them.
Opportunity (“Watching keenly”)
"OK, so I’ve got some things to work on, but I can’t control opportunities. Those are things that other people give to me!"
Technically, yes. I could get pedantic and point out that it’s possible to just start a company. Just start doing the thing. No one is stopping you except you (and the excuses that flood into your consciousness).
But let’s make it more difficult. How do you get others to give you opportunities (that you can combine with your preparation to make your own luck)?
First of all: Tell people.
Tell other people you want to get into product. There’s good news on this front. The fact you are asking the question that started this whole post, means you're already doing this.
But you can do it more. Tell friends, family, colleagues, mentors, mentees. Put it out in the universe. That will maximize your opportunities.
And not in some magic energy “The Secret” kind of way. When you tell others, you’re enlisting them in looking for opportunities for you. You’re covering more ground. If you keep the thought in your own head. You’re the only one looking for opportunities and a single person can only cover so much ground.
In addition, while you’re doing this, offer to help others. Not only does it feel good, but you’ll learn valuable lessons about (and develop empathy for) how others feel when they’re helping you. What do they need to make a connection? How do they know if you’re right for an opportunity?
Second: Become more yourself.
This will sound kind of weird, but one of the most effective things you can do is to something of always thought of as “becoming more yourself.” It sounds strange, but bear with me.
reduce reduce reduce
Imagine you’re making a good tomato sauce and you want to make it better. You don’t do that by adding random vegetables and meats that are popular in other dishes. You do improve it by reducing the sauce, concentrating the flavor, making what’s great about the tomato sauce stand out more.
/end of metaphor
This what you want to do with yourself. Become top 25% in a few things that you’re already good at. Pick the things you love doing, because improving them will be difficult and you’re going to need motivation to keep doing them even when it’s hard and the outcome is uncertain.
To get out of the world of generalities, here are some specific examples of things that I developed. Early on, I was already halfway decent at communication, abstract thinking, and strategy:
My background as performer already gave me a leg up on public speaking, plus an understanding about what makes a good story. I devoured books and articles about how to write and speak more effectively and I started this blog to practice it.
I’ve always thought in metaphors (hence the tomato sauce) and love philosophy, so kept going down those rabbit holes, finding books about theory of mind, Buddhism, Taoism, and the nature of metaphor.
i’ve loved strategy video games since i was kid, but i never liked to lose. I pushed myself to play on harder difficulties and i started to get better at strategic thinking and working within constraints, making tradeoffs, and prioritizing. I read and listened to podcasts and took courses on product strategy.
Coming from a background other than tech may seem like a disadvantage at first, because everyone who is currently doing product “doesn’t seem like you.” You’ll have to trust me on this, but the it’s quite literally the opposite of true. Even if you’re not the best of the best, having skills, experience, and perspectives that most of your product peers don’t have, can make it seem like you have superpowers in the right circumstances.
So in the end, there kind of is one weird trick. Although, there’s actually a lot to it, it isn’t really weird, or even a trick.
If getting into product is something you want to do, just start doing it. Take one step, then another, then another…
