Presales to Product Part IV: 3 Practical Actions for Transitioning to Product
In this series, I’ve spoken at length about the differences between the SE and PM roles, what gaps SEs have to fill to make the transition to product, and what skill overlaps they should lean on to shine.
But making the transition to product is not easy. It takes time. A lot of time. It took me over two years to make the transition. And because of that, I wanted to share three practical actions that you can take right now to begin your transition to product management.
1) Make the transition at your current company
Being able to leverage your deep knowledge and expertise of your company’s product(s) will make your transition from SE to PM easier (not “easy”, but “easier”). Unless you have an ‘in’ at an outside organization, your resume will likely be a lot of black text on a white sheet of paper that will get lost in the abyss of job applications.
Having a strong brand within your current organization raises the probability of a product leader betting on your potential. After all, if you’ve been funneling feedback from your customers to PMs, chances are they already know you and your work ethic. This makes it easier for them to take a risk on hiring you without any “formal experience”.
Keep in mind that your transition does not have to be directly to the title “Product Manager”. There are many roles that are one degree of separation from the PM role that make the transition more fluid. Some of those roles are:
- Product Analyst
- Outbound PM
- Technical Product Marketing Manager
- Internal IT Product Manager (vs. a commercial PM)
- “DIY” (see below)
The “DIY” option is most available within B2B software companies that have a partner ecosystem or app store. I’ve seen many SEs find a gap in their company’s software and build/publish a package to address that gap on the company’s app store (more on this below in “3) Do the “PM job” for free via a side project”).
The roles above can act as a stepping stone to your ultimate goal of becoming a PM. Focusing your energy on transitioning where you’re currently working will give you the best chance at making the transition quickly.
2) Meet with your company’s internal recruiter
This is probably the most overlooked step in the transition process…and it’s SO simple. If you’re going to make the transition to product, you need to warm up your pipeline (c’mon SEs…this is like sales!)
To do this, you need to find out which recruiter(s) at your company are involved in hiring internally. Ask them to meet with you, and come prepared with questions like:
- Has anyone ever made the jump from SE to PM?
- (If so,) who are those folks? (go talk to them!)
- Are there any PM hiring managers that are open to non-traditional backgrounds?
The purpose of meeting with the internal recruiter is networking. You need to get the inside scoop on whether or not they will be willing to ask hiring managers if they’d consider non-traditional hires in their interviewing process. And if they will, you need to position yourself as their first call!
Having a relationship with this person will help you source leads internally. They may not all work out, but they will be solid leads worth working. And it only takes one ‘Yes’ to make the transition.
3) Do the “PM job” for free via a side project
If you’re an SE, you probably hear about the gaps in your company’s product(s) all the time. This is an opportunity. Find a small, but impactful gap causing pain for customers, and go solve it with your company’s software or by building on top of your company’s software.
You may say, “But Gerard, I can’t code. What do I do…?”
In that case, I’d recommend trying to build a product that requires configuration only (e.g. an “accelerator” package that preconfigured settings to get customers an outcome), or better yet, finding a partner that can code to take on building this product gap together. This is where you will really begin building PM skills.
You may say to one of your SE friends who has developer skills: “Hey friend. It seems like you have some really solid dev skills. Would you be interested in working together on a side project to solve [XYZ GAP]. It’s high visibility and will solve a really challenging customer problem.”
You may even need to convince more folks to help beyond those who can code. When I began my pre-PM side project, I begged, borrowed, and stole from friends who were talented product managers, developers, UX designers, lawyers, and more.
Remember: your goal here is to build a portfolio of product-relevant interview conversations that will allow you to gain the attention of a hiring manager internally (because “you’re already doing the job”!)
Take note that none of these actions were “read XYZ book” or “take XYZ course”.
Reading and learning about product is incredibly important. I read tons of PM books and watched dozens of YouTube videos on the topic. But at the end of the day, there is theory and there is practice. These three are practical actions that you can take to make this transition a reality.
To close out this series, I wanted to highlight two fundamental reasons why I believe SEs can make GREAT product managers:
1) SEs care about the customer’s pain AND the customer’s success
Plain and simple: Most SEs just care. And that “caring” can ooze into the day-to-day PM duties, like creating product specs and messaging, talking to customers, and interacting cross-functionally with engineering, design, marketing, support, etc. to make sure the team is building THE RIGHT things.
2) SEs have sold before
They understand how sellers want to sell and how customers interpret being sold to. They’ve dug into the operations of sales, so they understand pricing, packaging, revenue recognition, and more.
As Tony Fadell says in the book Build, “this person is a needle in a haystack”. If you’re a hiring manager reading this, go look at your sales engineering team for your talent pipeline. You likely have a few needles laying in the haystack right under your nose inside your own company.
About the Author:
I’m just a Sales Engineer turned Product Manager that’s sharing my experiences with folks who are eager to make a similar transition. Feel free to drop me a note in the comments!
If you enjoyed this article, check out some of these blog posts!
•Presales to Product: A Mini-Series
•Presales to Product Part I: The Three Biggest Differences Between Presales and Product
•Presales to Product Part II: Skill Gaps
•Presales to Product Part III: Skill Overlaps
•Presales to Product Part IV: 3 Practical Actions for Transitioning to Product
