As a non-it professional how does one start in PM career? What are transferable skill sets required for a middle management PM role?

Generally, a good way to transition is when you change one dimension at a time. So, either change your company, role or industry. Trying to move across several things is hard (not impossible). In that context, the best shot is at trying for a product role within your existing company. Build relationships, try to stick around product work (e.g. exploratory analysis to help product teams prioritize, understand usage, measure impact, etc.), and ask mentors to let you drive some work (usually, there is SO MUCH work everywhere that people are happy to get support! There are Data related product roles too (e.g. building data platforms).

Skills that are transferable from a variety of different roles include prioritization, analytics, strategic work (i.e. starting with an ambiguous problem, defining a plan to solve it and executing along with timeline management), business acumen (understanding how revenue streams flow, how to think about your buyer, market opportunities), communication, project management.

A few key areas include strategic thinking, problem solving, customer and market validation, cross-functional management, analytical and strong communication. These are all broader skills that you can actively employ even in a non-product management role. 

A few areas to explore as you consider transitioning to product management career: 

• Develop and actively deploy some of the above skills in your current role 

• If available, shadow a PM in a project to learn more about the day-to-day 

• Volunteer within your group to actively partner with your Product team in projects 

• For example, if you are in sales or customer success, work with the PM who is launching a new product to help train your sales/field teams. If you are in customer support, become the curator of customer and market feedback, synthesize that for your Product team to easily action on 

If you're a non-IT professional looking to start a career in product management, it's important to recognize and leverage your transferable skills. Many skills that you might have developed in other roles can be extremely valuable in a PM position, even if they don't seem directly related at first glance.

For example, let's say in your first job, your boss asked who managed the finances in your household. This question, while seemingly unrelated, actually taps into a key aspect of product management: resource and budget management. Managing household finances requires careful planning, prioritization, and strategic thinking – all of which are critical in overseeing product development budgets and resources.

Another important aspect of product management is the ability to remain calm and think on your feet in stressful situations. Imagine during an interview for a PM role, your laptop fails to boot up for a presentation. If you had emailed the presentation to your boss beforehand and also carried it on a USB, this preparedness would demonstrate your foresight and meticulous planning. Additionally, staying composed and quickly adapting to the situation would showcase your problem-solving skills and ability to manage unforeseen challenges – a common occurrence in product management.

Both the above stories are mine from my first job interview for an associate product manager. I was an engineer at that point, moving to product management.

These examples highlight several transferable skills that are invaluable for a PM role, especially at the middle management level:

1. Strategic Planning and Budget Management: Skills gained from managing personal or household finances can translate into effectively overseeing product budgets and resources.

2. Problem-Solving and Risk Management: The ability to anticipate potential issues, prepare contingency plans, and address problems as they arise is crucial in product development.

3. Adaptability and Composure: Being flexible and maintaining your poise under pressure are important traits for managing the uncertainties and fast-paced nature of product management.

4. Communication Skills: Your ability to convey your ideas clearly and effectively, as shown by being prepared in the interview, is essential for collaborating with teams and stakeholders.

5. Leadership and Team Coordination: Any experience in leading or coordinating efforts, even in non-work settings, can be a strong foundation for team management in a PM role.

I have worked with PMs who do not have an engineering or CS background but have worked in other functions in a Tech company, such as Project Management, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success, to name a few. The underlying skills for these functions overlap with the PM job, such as requirements gathering, listening to customers, narrowing down their pain points, identifying the right target messaging and product positioning, etc. If your skills align better with one of the other functions, I would encourage entering one of the areas and switching to a PM function after a year or so. This way, you will have the advantage of knowing the customer, product, and teams before switching. The other route would be to consider your domain experience. E.g., I would target those companies if you are a legal or healthcare professional with rich domain experience.

First off, I'd check the entry point. I think it's rare that somebody would be new to product management and be coming in as a middle manager. Typically, people without a product management background are either going to be coming in at an entry level or occasionally as an executive who might be running a department on an interim basis, but those typically aren't permanent.

So that said, I've seen people come in successfully from a few different functions. Some of those include sales engineering and customer success management. I think the key here is that you develop strong customer empathy, customer interview, and customer relationship management skills. And if you're making a lateral transfer within a company, you've acquired strong domain about the product, the market, and the buyers. So typically, that's the most common entry point, although folks will often also come in through engineering for a similar set of reasons, though that doesn't help you as a non-IT professional.

The best part of Product Management is that many of the skills are transferable and while domain knowledge can be important, even that can be learned on the job. Key skills can differ based on which level you are at in your PM career, so am focusing on some that I think are most relevant for a middle management PM role.

• Strategic and critical thinking: Thinking long term, big picture is important you ahve to drive the vision for your product and make decisions quickly by cutting through the noise. You should be able to analyze information and provide actionalble insights to the team.
• Communcation: This by far is one of the most important skills. Communicating with customers, articulating the value and benefit of your product, collaborating with internal stakeholders as business/product decisions are made to ensure internal alignment, communicating with the dev teams, the CS teams, etc. The more effective communication, the easier is your product adoption. 
• Prioritization and time Management: As a PM, there could be a million things coming your way and ruthless prioritization is what you need to be able to focus on the critcial aspects of your day to day and manage time effectively.