Has anyone with a non-technical background successfully transitioned to Product Management?
If so, how did you do it? Was it making up for the technical shortfall or did you selectively target PM openings that are more qualitative in nature? Any prep resources that you found helpful?

I currently work in Strategy & Ops at a somewhat large software company and am looking to pivot to Product. Is PM feasible or are some stepping-stone roles needed first?

Any input would be greatly appreciated 👏

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If you are already at a company that has product roles the best way is to pivot in house. Is your manager supportive of you doing that? You do not need to be technical to be a good pm, you just need to be curious and able to understand how things work.

I have watched people from program and sales and other nontechnical roles pivot to product and they usually do it at the same company with support. They start by shadowing and talking to people that have the job they want, maybe helping on a specific team or feature and then applying to internal openings.

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That's reassuring to hear, thank you!

There are Product Managers and Technical Product Managers

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I transitioned to Product Management by pivoting internally. I started in Customer Delivery which allowed me to work closely with PMs on customer feedback and use cases and helped me understand how they were thinking. Then transitioned to an Ops role that reported to the CTO (who oversaw eng and product). I did that for a few years building out program management for prod/eng. Both roles helped me build my knowledge of how the PMs worked and understanding the technical concepts. Transitioning into product management was then a natural fit, I'd built relationships with a ton of the team leaders and built way more PM knowledge than I'd realized.
I'd recommend any stepping stones that can get you closer to the product and engineering teams to continue to learn how they operate.

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Never had a job in tech. Always worked in HR. And I’m currently in product management. It’s just being in the right place at the right time, connecting the tech side and the business. Raise your hand to be on projects that involve products, even just to shadow. Get really good at explaining technical work in layman’s terms. The biggest skill by far in product management is being able to communicate effectively across different teams and skill sets.

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If you're not an engineer, spending time on customer facing roles is the fastest way into product management. That's how I did it.
Also, you need to pay an interest into the tech that powers your product, enough to be able to contribute in trade-off convos.

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There are tons of online courses, some of the resources are mentioned above. You can start with the courses and shadow a product manager at your company to gain hands on experience.

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I transitioned from a Business Analyst role

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Might be answering this way too late but did you make the transition, if so how has it been so far?

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Why are you interested in product and what is your role currently?

Appreciate it!

I got into QA and was later steered toward PM at my company. I did take some online courses prior.

You got this!

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I think my mentor came from financial background he does have issues understanding pipeline and some tech stuff but he managed it well
He’s a lead BTW
I’m a senior training under him

I asked him what helped him study and build his portfolio, he said there are online courses that helps build credibility. I had a natural progression but maybe that helps too?

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