A Product Management Toolkit
Resources to get you started on the path
In my journey to PM, I have found that I am always in need of a textbook or an essay or community to explain something to me. This is a different experience for me because I am used to being at least somewhat versed in whatever I am pursuing at the time.
With Product Management, I have had to and still continue to learn a lot each day. Fortunately, the most important skill that a PM should have (in my opinion), empathy, comes easy to me. Empathy with your customers is important to have because only then can you understand their problems and then solve them. Empathy with your team is important if you are to get them to build the most optimal version of your product possible.
The first step on the path to becoming a Product Manager is understanding what a Product Manager is. I have talked about this in a previous article.
A good idea strategy is to find Product Management Bootcamps. You may choose a paid program like Treford or join a free BootCamp like the SideHustle internship which is where I started my journey.
The 5th cohort of the SideHustle BootCamp is coming up in roughly a month and you can join using this link
(this is a referral link so I may get a little kickback if a whole lot of people sign up with it)
While I have not landed my first job yet, I have it on good authority that to get a PM role, you need to have a portfolio. And not just any portfolio, you need a project management portfolio.
This article by Thaisa Fernandes does a great job of breaking down the portfolio creation process.
This website has a collection of great PM portfolios to guide you.
Having a portfolio is awesome, but if you are like me and are new to Product Management, there is one thing you need to do before building your portfolio and that is to build your first project.
There are many ways to go about this but this post by Anesii is the most clearly defined guide I have found so far. Even I could follow it
It might have taken a while, but you now have some product experience under your belt and a portfolio to show for it. You can start applying to jobs confident that you will land your first role soon.
As a bonus, one way to stay up to date with openings and also find support on your PM journey is by joining Product Management communities. One community that I have found very helpful and inspiring is the People in Product community, They host check-in calls, online mentorship sessions and the most insightful Twitter spaces conversations. The amount of support is simply invaluable.
Textbooks are a good way to learn about product management and they will be useful at various stages of your Product Management career. Trust me, if you have a question, the answer is probably in a textbook somewhere. The product book by product school is a great starting place.
You can find a lot more resources here.
