How I decided to become a Product Manager
How embracing uncertainty helped me make one of the best decisions of my life
After completing my B.Sc (majoring in Economics) I had no idea what I wanted to pursue as a career. My mind was in complete chaos. However, as an average graduate, I decided to do the worst thing — apply for masters having no clue about what I wanted to do in the future. Later on, looking back and analyzing my thoughts and actions I realized that the only thing I was sure about was moving out from my hometown to discover new ideas, network, and finally understand what I want and what is my vocation, and just throwing myself out of my comfort zone which I could feel was slowly stagnating and pulling me back. Considering that in my country moving out is a THING, applying for a master’s was just a normal and accepted way of doing what I wanted deep down but at the moment could not even confess myself. Eventually, I decided to apply to a Management master’s program hoping that it will help me wipe all the uncertainty out and finally decide on my career. Throughout the time I came to realize that not only the program does not help me to orientate but also it opens a whole new wide list of career options as the courses were very diverse. On top of all of this, I got a job at a junior position as a Product Developer/Market Researcher not understanding what that job was going to be actually about (this was one of the best decisions I could make at the time but I will talk about it later).
I was 23 years old at the time and the idea of my 20s being such a mess was so oppressive and tiresome (as I had opposite expectations).
This was a brief prologue about how uncertain I was about everything going on in my life to later tell you how gradually I came to the idea that Product Management is a good fit for me.
My days were passing by going to work then university, and constantly blaming myself that I am such a generalist and can not choose and specialize in one field that I will enjoy and of course be capable of doing. At the time I was reading “What I Wish I Knew When I was 20” by Tina Seeling and I believe the title of the book once more exposes my state of mind of endless searches for a ray of certainty in my life.
To my surprise, the core idea of the book was not avoiding uncertainty, but accepting it and embracing it, as it is how life works. The book suggested thinking of every uncertain thing that life throws your way as an opportunity to learn something, love something, or realize you don’t like it. According to the book, it is the uncertainty that makes us wonder and discover things and ourselves and understand that sorting out things is an inseparable part of life and there is no point in avoiding it. I know this sounds theoretical but believe me when you are in such life circumstances this becomes as practical as possible. As you can imagine I decided to give it a shot. It was quite hard for me as I am a risk-averse person and I like to plan everything (this is so funny and miserable as I was in such a mess I did not have anything to even plan), so giving every new opportunity a shot was emotionally draining and stressful for me. But I decided to commit anyway.
As I said I was working as a junior Product Developer/Market Researcher and at some point, our Product Owner left his position in our company. My manager asked me if I can temporarily replace him till they could find a new employee. I would certainly say no at any other time (although I was familiar with the product and working processes, I did not have any experience as a Product Owner, and everything I knew was just by watching our previous Product Owner work) but as I had promised myself to get out of my “box” and give every new opportunity a try, I agreed. I was lucky enough to have tolerant and supportive teammates who would rather help me understand the processes and the concepts than blame me for any misunderstandings and mistakes I had/made. By the time I understood that I enjoy what I do and decided to pack myself with a theoretical base to do things more mindfully. After some research, I chose to read “Inspired” by Marty Cagan and this is when I can say I knew what I wanted. For the first time in my life, rather than blaming myself for being a generalist, I understood that I just needed the right career where I could get the best of my generalist mind without trying to oppose my true nature. Additionally, I got to learn many new ideas and concepts that I liked, and most importantly this book completely changed my way of thinking in general, which I will talk about later.
For me, the phenomenon of Product Management is that it gives an opportunity to work in a field you are interested in or admire without being a specialist. Say you are not a doctor, but you want to help people get better healthcare. There you go, you can work on a product that aims to improve people’s healthcare experience. If you are a true education enthusiast but not a teacher or education policy/program maker, no worries you can work on an educational platform and combine your Product Management knowledge and skills with one of your passions. Or if you truly enjoy collaborating with different departments/specialists, being a Product Manager will give you that opportunity. Of course, this does not mean that Product Management itself may be relegated to the background, and to be a really good one you need to truly love it and specialize in it. This is rather about how being a generalist you can still specialize in something (Product Management in this case) and instead of opposing your generalist mind, get the best use of it and embrace it.
There I am now working as a Product Owner, learning Product Management and enjoying the current process and vision I have, and of course embracing the uncertainty in my life (the last one is still tough, though).
Now as you know how and why I decided to become a Product Manager, I will be posting about my learning process, sources I use, experiences, and questions I have, and will be happy to read about yours.
