How can you increase your chances of success in a career transition to product management?

Some people ask me how to make a career transition to product management, to which I usually respond with what I wrote in this article: the first step is to study through books and courses, and the next step is to look for a position where you can perform this product management role. Ideally, this position would be in your current company, as making two changes simultaneously (changing companies and careers) is very difficult.

Last week, during an in-company class, I told a story about a person I was able to help make a career transition.

When I joined Lopes, the largest real estate agency in Brazil, where I joined to lead the digital transformation process, one of my first focuses was designing the team structure. During this process, we saw the opportunity to create a team focused on franchises and brokers. I had some options as Group Product Manager for this team. I could bring in someone from outside the company with experience in PM leadership. You could bring someone from the product development team who already knows the company and the systems. I could bring someone from the company’s business area.

I decided on one of the less obvious options. A leader at Lopes had been with the company for over 12 years and worked in sales operations, was a partner in one of Lopes’ franchises for a few years, and now worked on the team that managed franchises. He was also working on some of the digital initiatives, which were very hands-on, with the digital team. He had business experience, leadership experience, Lopes experience, and a lot of interest in digital initiatives, to the point where he worked on these initiatives in addition to his day-to-day work. For this reason, I offered him the opportunity to become the Group Product Manager of the Franchises and Brokers team, even though he had no formal experience in product management. He had some informal experience in the digital initiatives he participated in, but I could certainly find more experienced product management leaders in the market. However, this person had business and company experience that would be useful in his role. In other words, we decided to bet on his career transition.

He then took product management training, and we hired product managers and product designers with experience in product development to join his team. It was clear to everyone, including the experienced product people who joined the team, that they were joining a team where GPM was very experienced in the business and the company but not so much in product management and that we were relying on the most experienced product people to increase the team’s overall product development and management experience.

Increasing the chances of successful career transition

After I told this story during the training, we started talking about the factors that helped this person who had no experience as a product manager to be successful in this role:

• He had good knowledge of the real estate business, which was necessary for the position.
• He was eager to learn about product management, to the point that she already was. She carried out product management in an informal and unstructured way.
• It had as its leader and followers people experienced in product management, who could show with practical knowledge how to manage products.
• This difference in knowledge and experience was made explicit so everyone could collaborate to reduce this difference.

We even made an analogy because, at this client, people were transitioning from other roles to the product management role.

Imagine a group of people who want to learn to swim. This group studies, reads books about swimming, watches videos, and, after some time studying, decides to put what they have learned into practice. They go to the pool and try to put what they have learned into practice. Eventually, they will be able to move through the water. They probably won’t be efficient, but after many attempts, they will find some way to move through the water.

Now imagine if this same group of people arrives at the pool and there is a swimming teacher who will help them in the learning process and swimming colleagues who will give them tips on swimming and how to enjoy the movements in the water better. Most likely the process will be faster, and people will be able to reach swimming levels that they would not be able to reach alone.

This was the environment we created for the franchise broker team’s GPM person, which increased his chances of success as a product person.

Therefore, if you are looking for a career transition, look for a place with people who can guide you and who can be your teachers and “swimming” colleagues. If you are a person promoting someone’s career transition to the product area, remember your responsibility to create a conducive environment, whether you are the teacher or looking for someone to be a teacher, and also looking for experienced colleagues who can help that person make a faster career transition and achieve further.

Workshops, coaching, and advisory services

I’ve been helping companies and their leaders (CPOs, heads of product, CTOs, CEOs, tech founders, and heads of digital transformation) bridge the gap between business and technology through workshops, coaching, and advisory services on product management and digital transformation.

Digital Product Management Books

Do you work with digital products? Do you want to know more about managing a digital product to increase its chances of success, solve its user’s problems, and achieve the company objectives? Check out my Digital Product Management books, where I share what I learned during my 30+ years of experience in creating and managing digital products:

• Digital transformation and product culture: How to put technology at the center of your company’s strategy
• Leading Product Development: The art and science of managing product teams
• Product Management: How to increase the chances of success of your digital product
• Startup Guide: How startups and established companies can create profitable digital products