Reflections on aYear in Product Management
I’ve been working in product management for a bit over a year now and I can hardly believe it sometimes. I set out to be a UX researcher after spending over 15 years as a paralegal. And by luck and happenstance, I’ve found myself in product management.
Funny story — I had actually applied for a UX role with my current (contract) employer. They didn’t think I was a good fit for that, but they were impressed enough by my UX research skills that they offered me a contract as a Business Analyst.
That Business Analyst role was just the beginning. A ridiculous number of reorganizations, one promotion, and a few contract extensions later, I’ve gathered a significant amount of experience in product management. I know you just rolled your eyes at that, because I just said that I have a little over a year of experience. To that I say: it’s been a turbo-charged year in a very fast-paced organization. My 1 year of work there feels like 4.
At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, I want to share with current and aspiring product managers what I learned as well as what I did to be successful in my first year in Product.
A little about me: I develop enterprise tools for managing digital media assets. My first project as a Business Analyst focused on an order management system for content. It was a small…
