You Want to Become a Product Manager?
The Decision. Planning.
Sometime last year, I made the decision to become a product manager. This was actually a subset of a decision to start a career in tech which was a subset of making more money which is similarly a subset of getting my life in order.
When considering a career in tech, there are a number of routes and roles that one could go. My first consideration was UI/UX Design and while I have always been fascinated by design thinking and human-centred design, I do not have an eye for design or colour matching and mixing. The best I can do is decide what looks better between finished products and having spent a lot of time on construction sites, where to put the toilet and kitchen in a new building. That I am really good at. So I crossed UI/UX off my list.
The next thing I considered was programming. But between frontend development, backend and full-stack development, there seem to be too many languages for me to even begin to wrap my head around. Python however tickles my fancy and I have made several attempts to learn it over the years. The name and the fact that it is so mathematics-based has made me a longstanding fan. I have also frequently dabbled in HTML and I am pretty proficient at writing markdown. My problem with coding is that at a certain point it starts to feel like doing pushups. I can no longer tell why I am pushing myself so hard. And so programming was out of the running.
The last option I considered was product management and I’ll be honest I fell in love with it partly because it has the word manager in it. This is not entirely hubris on my part. Managing is my passion. I enjoy having a high-level view of things and working to achieve big-picture goals rather than slogging through the day-to-day drudgery of feeling like a cog in a machine. I am highly motivated to work when that work involves guiding people and helping them to perform and generally be more happy and productive. I love people. This is the reason why I went and got myself an MSc. in Human Resource Management. So when I found out that product management basically involves working with people, for people, I was sold on the idea.
My first step on this path, since I already have two degrees in fields that are not exactly directly related to my newly chosen career was to find a BootCamp program where I could not only learn but also apply and practice the skills I would need to be a successful product manager. And that was when I found SideHustle.
The SideHustle program is currently in its 4th cohort and it involves 6 weeks of learning followed by an optional 6-week intensive BootCamp and I was determined to ace it. Throughout the first stage, I led a team of 20 people through 2 capstone projects. We developed user stories, personas and flows and created wireframes.
At the end of the program, I walked away with two things. This certificate:
And the certainty that I have a lot to learn. I immediately applied for the group camp where I am once again Team leader although now with about 50 people in my team and the responsibility of ensuring that everything and everyone comes together each week to deliver on a product that feels like my baby.
I have come to realise that if I truly want to succeed at this path, I must have some sort of understanding of everything I had initially ruled out as career choices. While I understand that some people go on to work at startups post Bootcamp, my goal has never been just to work. I want to make solutions that matter.
There is no clearly drawn out path to becoming a product manager. While most PMs come from technical computer-based backgrounds, a not-insignificant number come from various fields like mine. People who along the way realised that they want to serve the customers and the market by making products that matter.
While I have no previous experience in tech-related fields, I have worked in media as an editor and in the hospitality industry as an HR professional and I know a thing or two about working in the service of a consuming class. Editors make sure that their product is worthy of the consumer's attention. Human Resources professionals exist at the intersection of the business, the technology and the employees just like PMs exist at the intersection of the business, the technology and the consumer.
I am now in a similar Bootcamp for design and looking forward to completing Freecodecamp’s development curriculum as well, in the coming months. I am forging my own path and I am excited to see where it leads.
