Beginning of product manager
How did I start to become a product manager?
As I mentioned in my previous post that I have decided to become a product manager. Well it’s not that easy to switch competence from software engineer to product manager and get a job. For that one needs a strategic preparation and knowledge about product management. We all love challenges in our daily life so I took this challenge as well.
My name is Harsh and being a software engineer, I have decided to become a product manager. This blog is not about ultimate guide to become a product manager if you are a software engineer but it’s about my personal journey, how I started to train myself to become a product manager.
The first thing you should do is to ask yourself a couple of questions. For example why do you choose to become a product manager. This question is very important, because the answer of this question has the motivation to become a product manager. If you are clear with this question in your mind then you can think of the next step. There are a couple of tools available to kick off in the world of product management.
The beginning phase requires lots of reading and talking with people who are already in the industry. I have discovered this awesome website https://www.sachinrekhi.com/top-resources-for-product-managers, which includes 100 articles about product management. The most helpful thing I like on this website is the categorization of the articles. You can easily find which category you want to read. In addition to that I have done the product management 101 course on Udemy. This course helped me a lot to improve my product management knowledge. The instructor Todd Birzer systematically teaches the fundamentals of product management whether it’s a software or hardware product. Again I liked the categorization of the course which includes market research, strategy, product development and life cycle management. Each category gives you a deep understanding of the topic and he also gives tools to solve problems.
Well, as I said earlier that above approach worked for me to dive into the product management ocean. There is plenty of material available on the internet. If some other materials or courses work for you then go for it.
To conclude this blog, I would also like to share one thing which may help to think like a product manager. Think of any product you like, which you may use in your daily life. For example, Twitter, LinkedIn, camera or smoke detector. It can be anything, an app or any device, and then think of making that product better. Be a product manager of that product and try to write down all the good features and features to improve that product. This exercise can help you to think and act in a strategic product management way.
Till next time, stay curious, stay motivated and stay connected.
