Typical Engineering to Product Management Considerations
Are you considering whether to transition from an Engineering role (such as Software Engineer, Architect, or Quality Assurance) to Product Management?
Do you need guidance on how to make this transition, if you so choose to do so?
I've been a panel member in a few Product Management courses to address student's questions at the end of courses at various colleges, such as Stanford University, Santa Clara University and Babson College. At the end of the panel discussion, I find myself spending a lot of time with people who are considering the switch from Engineering roles to Product Management. While there are people looking to transition from non-Engineering roles to Product Management as well, this post is going to be more focused for R&D folks that have Engineering backgrounds. It does not matter whether you were in Development, QA, Support or Sustaining roles.
Motivation for the transition to Product Management
The first question you have to ask is why do you want to move out of Engineering? Then, you ask why Product Management.
Why did I want to move out of Engineering?
When I was considering the transition, I had a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science. I had tried a few different Engineering roles (Software Engineer, QA Automation, and Level 3 Support Engineer). While each role was a great learning experience, I enjoyed the Level 3 support role the most because it involved a lot of customer interaction. I understood how customers used our products and then influenced future product direction as well as made better day-to-day product development decisions. In my software engineering roles, I got bored of catching Null Pointer Exceptions and while I was pretty good at what I did, I did not get inner-satisfaction from what I was doing.
I've met a few people now who consider the transition because they feel they can make more money as a PM. Engineering roles as Software Architects, Directors, and VPs make more money than their comparable PM counterparts, so don't be under this misconception. I strongly discourage you to consider this transition if money is your sole motivation. Work harder and smarter in your Engineering role so you can move up the ladder.
Why Product Management?
I have a dream to build a company and leave a legacy like Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. A Product Manager is a CEO of a product, so it was the obvious choice for me. I did consider other roles such as Sales Engineer, Solutions Architect, Technology Consultant, and Product Marketing Manager. After speaking with a lot of people and a few of my mentors, I decided that I wanted to do Product Management as it will be the right stepping stone towards building my own company.
I decided against Product Marketing as I wanted to be closer to technology. Consulting involved too much travel and I did not feel that I could get into the top tier firms at that stage in my career. While I was open to Sales Engineering and Solutions Architect roles, I really wanted to get to Product Management.
The actual transition
From the time that I decided to pursue Product Management, it took me about 4 years to get there. I interviewed within my company and outside. People liked my background for technical product management roles but did not want to take chances with someone who lacked the experience. I often started being upfront about it at interviews that while I do not have PM experience, I won't get it until you give me a chance. Every rejection made me more frustrated but I was determined and persistent.
I realized that this was not going to be an easy transition, so I decided to learn how others transitioned to these roles. Very few people become Product Managers right out of college so there must be paths.
I found the following paths as patterns for how R&D folks transitions to PM roles:
- Engineering + MBA to Product Management
- Engineering to Program Management to Product Management
- Engineering to Product Owner/Technical PM to Product Management
- Engineering to Sales Engineering to Product Management
- Engineering to Technical/Competitive Marketing to Product Management
I ended up doing a combination of 1, 2 and 3. I became a Program Manager and pursued a part-time MBA. Part way through my MBA, I was able to transition to a Product Management role. Initially, I focused 75% on inbound PM responsibility and 25% outbound. With time, I became a PM with both inbound and outbound responsibilities for large product lines.
FAQs
- Was it easy? No
- What did it take? A lot of persistence and luck
- Did I get the inner-satisfaction? YES! :)
- Did Program Management experience help? YES. I worked very closely with the Product Manager and was able to learn a lot during that role.
- Did the MBA help? YES. A lot of tools, techniques and confidence builder. I don't believe the door would have opened so quickly if I wasn't in the middle of it.
- How did you bring it up with your Engineering manager or did you? I was a bit of an open book about my intentions. It held up my Engineering promotions but led me to a better place longer term.
If you have questions, please reach out or comment. I usually don't blog about these things but given the number of times I talk about this with people in the same boat as I was, I figured it will be worth blogging if it even helps one person out there.
