Zen Product Manager

Kill the noise

career

Consultants moving into Product Management

I connected with an MBA candidate with a management consulting background who wanted to get into Product Management.  It’s unfortunate but the first thing that came to mind was the subtitle of the book “House of Lies.”   After I chuckled for a bit, I got back to the topic at hand.

House of Lies

After probing to better understand his background and motivations, it was clear that he’d have an uphill climb for a variety of reasons.

Background

  1. The consulting was focused on digital transformation (Admittedly, I don’t know what that actually means).
  2. His output was reports and presentations on how the company could transform but there was no execution.
  3. He did not have experience in development or working with developers.
  4. What he liked most about product management was defining strategy…
  5. He’s working on his *cough cough* MBA…

There are three potential paths to get in:

  1. Find an industry that he learned most about especially during his consulting days and position himself as an expert.
  2. Try some side hustles where he can get experience bringing products to market, working with developers, and analyzing results.
  3. Get the skills to start at the bottom in a target company or industry.  The role may be customer support or software implementations. 

If you’re interested in getting into product management, with background described, be prepared to take an indirect route but hope for some luck.    As the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Product Management and the MBA

I’m old enough to remember the commercial depicting an MBA who couldn’t send a FedEx package:

I found it funny at the time, and I still do even though I ended up getting an MBA. I decided to pursue B-school cause I had plateaued in my career. I had done an undergrad in a business technology program, and I had always envisioned working more on the strategy side, but up until then, I had been working in technical support and professional services —basically supporting and implementing products created by someone else.

So after I finished, I was so stoked cause I got a Product Management role. Score one for the MBA! Unfortunately, I got a rude awakening. I thought all those case studies and frameworks I learned at school would help me kill it, but in reality, I ended up getting killed cause I was drowning while being pulled in what felt like a million directions:

  • I need the requirements now!
  • the button should go here and why is it that color?
  • how should we position this with the customer?
  • the competitive deck is not up-to-date!
  • there’s a deal, and we need this feature, how can we get it in???
  • I need you to do a demo is 20 mins… and on and on and on.

Years later, a PM I had brought on lamented that the MBA didn’t prep him for the realities of product management. As I reflected on my journey, I was able to see how it helped shape my approach to problem-solving. However, as weird as it is for me to say, if you’re early in your career and contemplating product management, forget the MBA and find ways to get into the school of hard knocks. Build up other vital skills like how to gain credibility with development, empathize with your buyers and users, and navigate organizational complexities.