The story of how finding Transferable Skills helped me to transition to Product Management from Consulting. (Copy)
What are Transferable Skills, and why are they essential for aspiring Product Managers?
I transitioned to Product Management from the Consulting industry, and I remember how stressful this process was for me. You most likely feel uncertain whether this is the right move for you, and you are overwhelmed with tons of information about the new career. You may also feel unsure where to start and think you need guidance.
However, the reality is that you don't need to start from the ground up. Let's think about it. Product Managers (PMs) build and launch products from scratch or improve and grow existing products or processes. They do a great variety of things, from strategic to tactical. For instance, on the strategic level, they look for and prioritize a problem or opportunity space. This task might not seem very difficult, but it involves a great deal of research, analysis, and trade-offs. The key here is to select those problems that need to be solved to bring the business forward and delight customers. Once the problem is chosen, PMs test out different possible solutions to select only one that makes it to the development stage. Of course, the Product Managers don't do all this alone. They have to collaborate closely with many other teams - Product Designers, Software Engineers, Sales, Marketing, etc.
As you can see, Product Managers work on many different things. And to do so, they need to have a great variety of skills. And there is a high chance that you, who are currently working in other functions - Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, Customer Success, or Engineering team - already have some of the skills that a Product Manager needs to have! These are so-called "transferable skills" - the skills you already have and can apply to the Product Manager role. How cool is that?
Let me give you an example from my journey to Product Management from Consulting. My role back then was "Management and Technology Consultant." My typical task was to help clients to solve their burning business problems. It involved analyzing the situation in detail, working out solution alternatives, and finally developing and launching one of the solutions. The final solution could include a software product and recommendations on a business process change. When I was analyzing how my Consultant's experience is related to the Product Manager role, I realized that I was in charge of creating the very first version of a product from scratch. All of the tasks I did as a Consultant turned out to be very similar to those a Product Manager takes care of. However, as a Consultant, I wasn't in charge of any further improvements to the Product and any strategic decisions regarding its long-term future. These were my skills gaps as a PM back then.
Understanding that I have clear, transferable skills towards the new career defined how I approached the job search process. From then on, I knew that I was not starting my career all over again but had solid skills and experience that I could bring to the table. This knowledge gave me enormous confidence during job interviews and, frankly, was one of the main reasons I got that very first job as a PM. I prepared examples of my contribution during the consulting projects and used them to demonstrate how I can solve complicated problems as a Product Manager.
Of course, my example may be ideal, and you won't have that many transferable skills. Maybe you can relate your current skills to only some parts of the Product Development Process. For instance, let's say you work in Sales or Customer support. It means that you deal with customers a lot; you most likely know their needs, wants, and expectations. And if you work in a product company, you are probably the one who already works closely with a Product team, e.g., you share customer requests and feedback with them. So you bring these skills forward on your product interviews as your key selling points. Or let's say you work as a Project Manager now. In this case, you are powerful at the execution side of things - you know how to prioritize tasks, manage resources and scope of work, and deliver under tight deadlines. These skills will be relevant to you as a Product Manager at the Product Development stage when the entire Product team focuses on building the right solution.
Skills Assessment Framework
I believe I have convinced you why finding your transferable skills is crucial for you as an aspiring PM. Now let's talk about the most important part - how to find them. Since you didn't work as a Product Manager before, of course, you don't have a complete picture of what PM is in charge of. To help you on this journey, I created a Skill Assessment framework. This assessment is structured around the Product Manager's tasks and activities divided by stages of the Product Development Process:
Product Vision and Strategy
Solution Design and Validation
Product Development, and
Product Launch.
The assessment also has a separate section with People Skills that every Product Manager is expected to have.
Skills Assessment Framework for aspiring Product Managers
You will see a skill level graded from zero to five for every activity or task. And the description of what's expected for each level. Your goal will be to compare the experience and skills you already have to those needed for the Product Manager role. Your transferable skills will most likely belong to the score points two and three. Everything that falls under the score from zero to one is your skill gap or major opportunity for improvement to raise your chances of getting a Product Manager job.
You will find more guidance on dealing with the assessment framework after downloading the file.
And just one thing I'd like to get across before I finish the post. Please don't forget that this assessment is by no means an exhaustive representation of a Product Manager's skills. It's just a baseline of the core skills expected from a PM. So take it with a grain of salt and modify and adjust the list as long as you learn more about the role and job requirements and expectations from the Product Manager role at your dream companies.
To be continued… in the next post, I'll share what strategies you can use to cover your skills gaps as a PM - stay tuned!