Becoming a Software Product Manager as an English Graduate

A product manager without an MBA or technical expertise

I work as a Software Product Manager, and guess what, I don’t know how to code and I certainly do not have an MBA yet. This is me narrating my journey into Product Management from being an English Graduate cum Copywriter.

If someone had told me December 31, 2019, that I’ll find myself working in a tech firm as a Product Manager, barely three weeks into the new year, I’d never have believed. But life is sure full of surprises.

Let me introduce myself. My name is David Mayowa Joy (DMJ), the number one lazy procrastinator in the world. Yes, that’s me, no need to sugarcoat things. I’ve been postponing writing this article for the past five months, and just tonight when I’d locked down to sleep feeling unproductive having done nothing during the weekend, I stood up, picked my laptop and started typing furiously. You can tell I’m rambling on, let me get into the story of the day.

DMJ as a Copywriter

I am a graduate of the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University. I finished with a 4.71/5.0; permit me to toot my horn. But thanks to the connections I made on campus, I got to know that opportunities don’t drop at your feet because you graduate with a First Class. So, in my penultimate year in school, I got introduced to and started writing for an Upwork Guru, with my tasks ranging from writing blog posts, website copies, product reviews to college essays and ebooks. And just in case you were wondering, my grades never faltered.

Truth be told, back then, I couldn’t really figure out where this immense drive was coming from. Fine, the money wasn’t bad, and it felt good to be financially independent (I’m an Igbo girl hahaha), but now I look back and I can say, I actually enjoyed it. I continued with copyrighting until I graduated and went home to Lagos.

Weeks after I got to Lagos, someone pitched the bright idea of a co-working space to me. I feel ashamed to say this now, but that was my first time ever hearing of such. So, if you fall in this category, a co-working space is kind of like an office, you get a work chair and a table together with constant electricity, Internet supply, and some other perks, depending on the hub you subscribe to, and you pay monthly.

So yeah, I started out at a hub in Yaba with a very unstable income but everyone at home thought I was earning thousands of Naira monthly, if only they knew. After three months, I moved from that hub to the popular and slightly more expensive co-creation hub (CC Hub), the Nigerian tech innovation hub that hosted Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey of Twitter (I actually got to meet Jack) and some other prominent persons.

But wait a minute, it wasn’t all rosy, there are a lot of backstories, such as the challenges I faced in early 2019. I was about finishing my final year school project and had sent my CV and cover letter to several people. I went as far as messaging some top people on LinkedIn and got no response.

Eventually, one particular HR agency reached out. They needed a copywriter, and I thought to myself, this is it, the break I’ve been waiting for. I went through all their stages, wrote all the essays they required, and till today, I haven’t gotten a response from them. I kept calling and calling, and they kept saying they’ll get back to me in seven days. Lol. Guess their seven days is still counting!

How I Became a Product Manager

To be honest, I can’t remember the exact moment I heard the word Product Management. I don’t know how it managed to get stuck in my head, and I got so obsessed with it. I found myself telling everyone that I wanted to become a software product manager, and I got tips on how to move forward. I started watching several Product School videos on YouTube, and the more I learnt, the more I ascertained that I was meant to be a Product Manager. I found myself scouring the Internet and reading every article I could lay my hands on Product Management.

A friend introduced me to Lynda, now LinkedIn Learning, and I paid to open an account with the thought that once my money becomes involved, I’ll be more serious. I took several courses on the platform, but one with Cole Mercer was really detailed and increased my “obsession” with Product Management.

Was it the part where I could be in the software industry without coding? Or the part where interacting with customers and team members is part of my job descriptions? It all just sounded so Me and Yum. I was surrounded by software guys, and they all could see that my interest in Product Management was going nowhere, and some of them keyed into it. I came on board some side projects as the Product Manager, and I was applying all I learnt on the job.

Then, I started searching out product management hashtags on Twitter, and this was how I discovered ProductDive and Tobi Otokiti, and the motto “Iterate Until Awesome.”

If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to really get going. The small steps indeed lead to the bigger things in life. This is my first medium article. However, I plan to keep you all updated on my journey into and in Product Management.