My PM Journey — Analyst to PM in three months — How?
If you’ve decided to read this post after reading my first one, welcome back! I’m sincerely humbled to have you back.
Three months into my new Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst job, a mere two days after I’d shared with a friend that an optimistic forecast would have me promoted to a product analyst within a year, I was called into my manager’s office and informed that I was to become a product manager the following month.
This was a (short term, but still a) dream come true, I was utterly shocked.
Since then, the astonishment cleared up a bit, and I was asked on multiple occasions what I’d done to to drive this rapid promotion.
Obviously, I was at the right place at the right time. However, knowing that both were chosen by me, I set out to determine exactly what it was that I’d done to bring myself to modern reality’s Nirvana — the right place, at the right time.
This post will aim to break down the actions I’d taken that catalyzed my move from analyst to PM (I ranked them according to the common feature ranking system for product design interviews: 3 marks the highest value and also the smallest effort). Clearly, my promotion could not be accredited merely to the listed below, but upon conducting quite a thorough analysis, I do believe that they were critical factors in this process.
So, what did I do to get promoted from analyst to PM three months after joining the company?
TL:DR —
I :
A. Chose great managers
B. Joined a rapidly growing company
C. Was not shy about my aspirations
D. Initiated contact
E. I became an expert on the company, the product and the market
F. Aced my tasks
I chose great managers
Difficulty — 2
Value — 3
Score — 5
This isn’t going to blow anybody’s mind. Choosing people and management first is very common and useful career advice. Although, I believe that its’ importance dramatically grows when one starts a new job, aiming to pivot his career ASAP.
To demonstrate, let’s examine a scenario of an employee aiming switch roles in the company and hoping to gain relevant domain knowledge and experience in the meantime. His ability to accomplish that will depend greatly on his manager -
A bad manager will order him to focus on what he’s getting paid to do.
A good manager will allow to sometimes learn and experience in the field of his interest.
A great manager will leverage his knowledge and position in the company to amplify learning opportunities and become a catalyst of his employee’s growth.
I believe that selecting great managers was a key aspect in my promotion to PM.
I joined a rapidly growing company
Effort — 2
Value — 3
Score — 5
Rapid growth was something that I’d initially left out. In retrospective, I realized it’s vitality in the story. Choosing a non-PM job while striving to become a PM, I knew that what I’d needed were opportunities. Opportunities are all around us, if we know how to look in the right places. Small, rapidly-growing companies, however, are opportunity factories - instantaneously, side projects become products. One person’s free-time-explorations transpose into teams and departments. Joining a rapid-growth startup is not a guaranteed way to find one’s dream opportunity, but it is much likelier to create opportunities at a high velocity. In my case, choosing to join one has bore this opportunity for me much faster than my most optimistic forecasts predicted it would.
I was not shy about my aspirations
Effort — 3
Value — 2
Score — 5
Warning: Critical point ahead.
Throughout every step of the way, I made sure my goal of becoming a PM was well known to anybody who was relevant. I’d shared it in every stage of the recruitment process; In my first days in the company, I introduced myself in the product team as an aspiring PM and offered to help them and learn along the way. Simply put, I conducted human SEO — I positioned myself as the first result that would pop up when people googled their mind for potential PMs.
In tech, things move swiftly and opportunities arise often. Often enough that we have to make sure that if one presented itself today, we would be considered a top candidate. Not so often, though, that we can allow ourselves to miss out on them. Being an immediate association to PM in your company’s management’s minds any time an opportunity arrives, is paramount to your success.
I initiated contact
Effort — 2
Value — 2
Score — 4
One might describe this measure as the practical side of the previous step. Proudly proclaiming my ambitions was nice, now was the time to demonstrate that they were more than mere words. It’s quite easy and natural to forget your future goals while diving deep into your current role and daily tasks, but I believe that it was vital that I didn’t. Between tasks, I made sure to ask politely to sit in on any forum that might’ve been relevant for me. Planning meetings, client interviews and demos were all events that I’d been a self-invited guest in. I was pleasantly surprised to understand just how passionate people are about guiding and mentoring. Actively claiming the mentee position helped me receive both appreciation from my superiors, as well as experience and domain knowledge that related to my future role. Additionally, partaking in relevant PM tasks and events allowed me to demonstrate to my environment my abilities in the PM world before ever being one.
I became an expert on the company, the product and the market
Effort — 1
Value — 3
Score — 4
In my short experience I’ve come to believe that in many ways, the role of a PM could be narrowed down to one who sees the bigger picture. The evasive ability to take endless variables into consideration and come out with practical, well rounded solutions, is quite rare. I believe that this is, in large, the reason PM positions commonly require significant experience. Upon commencing a new role, there’s always internal and at times (hopefully not) external pressure to learn quickly on the move, and hastily create value for your employer. With the goal of pivoting to PM in mind, I took the time during my onboarding to gain an in-depth understanding of the company’s structure, the market, the product, and above all, the intertwining of all of the above. Having a deeper understanding right from the start allowed me to better position myself as a candidate for the PM job, while dramatically improving my performance in any PM related activities that I took upon myself.
I aced my tasks
Effort — 1
Value — 2
Score — 3
This is probably the most obvious and perhaps the hardest point on the list to accomplish. Nevertheless, I chose to stress this point because we as humans have a knack for ignoring important, obvious things, especially when they’re difficult. This point might also seem contradictory to the others, but I believe that finding equilibrium was fundamental in my success. With the goal of PM on my mind, it was tempting to dedicate too much time, effort and thought to the future. Especially with a wonderful manager and an enabling, trusting environment, I had the ability to put a lot of focus on PM related activities and leave out excelling at being an analyst. I had to constantly remind myself that before the future there’s the present, and that acing the present is essential in enabling the future. Rocking the analyst position allowed me to demonstrate skill and abilities that are universal — commitment, ownership, communication skills and hard work among them. Had these traits not been emphasized to my managers as an analyst, I highly doubt I would be writing these lines right now.
You’ve made it!
I know that this wasn’t the lightest read. A list of action-items is not necessarily what one might fantasize about reading while curled up in a hammock on a tropical beach (and if you’re the one that might, let’s talk 😀). Nevertheless, I do believe that the unfolding of these events is not a one-time phenomenon, and that this road, leading to these results, is at least partially re-creatable. I selected awesome management at a company in rapid growth, I was not timid about my goals and I initiated contact and I gifted myself a deeper understanding of my environment while nailing my tasks. Doing all of these allowed me to accelerate my journey to becoming a PM, and I sincerely believe that it can do the same for my readers.
This post marks the the end of Why?Why?Why?’s prologue — my journey to PM. Starting with the next post, each post will summarize one of the first months of my PM career. Getting the PM position was a fairly quick, wonderful challenge — the real plot begins now that I have it.
I hope you stick with me, this will definitely be a challenging, interesting and eventful journey.
See you soon!
