You can break into Product Management without a tech background. I’m proof.
Product Management has been one of the hottest buzzwords in tech for a while now, and for good reason. In India, the average Product Manager’s salary is reportedly 246% higher than the national average salary. According to a report by GlassDoor, Product Management has been rated the #10 best job in the US in 2023.
There has never been a better time to be a Product Manager- with its blend of creativity, technical know-how and analytical rigor, it’s perfect for anyone looking to up-skill themselves, build networks, and enjoy a rewarding career.
And yet, Product Management can feel like an exclusive club for the most part. Many big tech companies prefer- or even insist- on you having an engineering background, and sometimes require a Management degree too.
What does this mean for folks without that coveted tech background who want to break into Product Management? Can non-engineers have a successful career as PMs?
Well, I believe so. I went from being a freshly minted post-graduate in English Literature to successfully kickstarting my Product Management career at a top Indian startup in less than a year. Today, I have nearly 4 years of Product Experience and am currently working at a top American ed-tech where I lead a team of 3.
And I believe if I can do it, there is no reason you can’t.
Here is the exact, step-by-step guide I followed to land my first job in Product, as someone with a non-technical background. This is by no means a one-size-fits-all guide, but I hope there are some parts of this you are able to apply to your own career.
Start out at a startup:
Startups may have a reputation for being notoriously unpredictable with a near nonexistent work-life balance, where words like ‘hustle’ and ‘grind’ are thrown around like confetti, but that may not always be true.
In fact, I firmly believe that if you are looking to break into a new career path, there really is no better launchpad than a startup. Why?
Because unlike the bigger, more established companies, rules & regulations here are not set in stone. They’re willing to listen to your passions and aspirations, to look past your diploma, and analyse what you’re capable of doing, not just what you’ve already done. This was the case with me, too.
I started out as an intern in an early-stage startup, and when I decided to switch to a full-time product role, I was assessed for my skills and potential. I am sure a lot of bigger companies are probably like this, too, but in my experience, there are few places better to start out a new line of career than at a startup. Plus, you’ll have the liberty to try new things, make mistakes, and learn from some incredible people.
Get into a client-facing role
For me, what really helped me understand that I wanted to get into product management was working in a client-facing role. You know how they say that everyone should work at least one customer service role in their life? That’s especially true for a Product Manager. The internship I did straight out of college required me to talk to customers and help them use the product better and in the 6 months I spent doing that, I got access to a wealth of user insights: what exactly people liked about our product, and what was a deal breaker. When I had them on the phone, clients did not hold back on telling me what they wish they could see fixed. And little did I know then that this feedback I was getting was worth its weight in gold.
As a newbie PM, this user feedback informed a bulk of my early product development work, helped me gain visibility in the company and transition into a permanent Product role with a great starting salary.
Apart from customer service, roles like Quality Assurance, Product Marketing, and Operations can also be a great place to start.
Hone your communication skills
One of the hallmarks of a truly great Product Manager is exceptional communication skills.
A lot of your time as a PM will be spent in communicating: whether that’s writing Product briefs, conducting user interviews with customers, or even syncing with your team across timezones or convincing them why you want to prioritise one product over the other.
I spent the first 3 months of my very first product role looking at existing product documentation by other PMs: what was the language and tone they followed? How detailed/in-depth were these documents? Who was going to be consuming these documents, and how can I make it easier for them to understand what I’m saying, with minimal back-and-forth?
Take time to work on your communication skills; it’s a skill that will truly come in handy.
Do product tear-downs
List down a few products you use on a daily basis and are familiar with (say, Uber, Spotify, Amazon, etc).
Spend time analyzing these products, and ask yourself: what do you like about this product? What do you dislike? How could this product make your life even better? What is their monetisation model? What are the products you’ve been loyally using for years? What is a product you uninstalled/stopped using immediately? If you were a PM on this product, what is one change you would make to instantly improve it?
You can either do this as a practice exercise, or you could choose to document this on PowerPoint/Word and use it to build your Product portfolio. This exercise will not only sharpen your product instincts, but also makes for a great talking point in your interviews and sets you apart from your peers.
Gain industry knowledge and build a network
As you prep for a career in product management, be sure to gain some background knowledge about Product, the history of how Product came to be (highly recommend Inspired by Marty Cagan), the current trends in the industry, and more. And while you’re at it, start building out your network, connecting with folks who are in similar stages in life and also transitioning into a Product role, and exchange valuable learnings and insights with them.
I spent my early career aggressively networking with like-minded people, and co-incidentally, it was a member of my network who helped me get my current job through a referral!
You never know who might just flip your career around, so take your time in building a solid network. LinkedIn is a great place to start, and so are online Product groups like Product School, Women in Product, etc. (separate post on this coming soon!)
And lastly,
Enjoy the process!
Product Management is an incredible career with immense opportunities for rapid growth and learning, which can be what makes it all the more challenging to get into.
But once you manage to hop on the PM train, you would not want to trade it for anything else.
As you prepare for your big break, I hope you will learn to enjoy the process, learn as much as you can, talk to as many leaders and Product experts as possible, and of course, that you find your dream Product role soon!
