How do you get into a saas based company if you have no experience working in one and what are some of the core competencies you need when you are starting out?

Check out my other answer in this AMA to a question asked by someone from a construction industry. You can repurpose the steps I outlined in that answer to your situation. The key parts to figure out will be the WHY behind your interest in SaaS, a list of skills you have today that are transferrable into product management, and updating your resume/profile/interview practice accordingly. Good luck!

Some key tips are:

- Research the industry: what are the specific areas within SAAS you are most interested in? Follow newsletters, influencers and publications/conferences. Network with relevant leaders.

- Start a side hustle that showcases your skills. I build a mobile app from scratch to gain relevant experience. This helped me get a better understanding of the in's and out's. Build out a portfolio of your learnings.

- Use relevant tools and products that will help you gain an understanding of the feature set

- Offer to work with someone on a side project in the industry to gain direct experience.

• Understand how commercial teams are setup, how products are priced, what's a typical sales cycle and even more top of the funnel - how is marketing run, target customers and the value props.

• Build a basic empathy for a B2B buyers journey - which platforms are potential buyers already on, what influences purchase decisions, what are the funding sources and budget constraints.

• Expand your product sense to be product+service sense. What are the workflows your are enabling or making more efficient? What's the product behind those workflows, who are the people interacting with the product to enable a service?

• Research metrics that can be specific for the company - product/user/business growth, engagement, retention, efficiency. This ecosystem could be very unique depending on the sector you are targeting.

• If you haven't had the exposure to work on API requirements - build a basic know-how of how to think about API layers, end-points, partner services and integrations. Specific to a sector, partner integrations can be critical for a product's success.

If you are already in a Product role, there are common skills that apply across SaaS or non-SaaS products. These include strategic thinking, problem solving, customer and market validation, ability to influence, strong communication and so on. 

There are a few additional considerations when you are in a Product Management role in a SaaS company: 

• Strong analytical skills: 

  • There are terms like Monthly Recurring Revenue, Active Users (daily, weekly monthly), Cohort usage and behavioral metrics, Customer health including engagement, growth rate, active revenue per user and churn 

  • Getting familiar with SaaS product KPIs and drivers to improve these metrics will be very valuable 

• Customer onboarding: 

  • Most SaaS companies are looking for product teams to actively be involved in customer onboarding as typically engagement in the first 30/60/90 days are key drivers for retention and revenue growth 

• Product Led growth: 

  • The other concept beyond onboarding’s  where product surface becomes a self-education platform to drive usage, customer engagement and expansion and retention that drives monthly recurring revenue. 

• There are popular blogs or podcasts you can follow to learn more about SaaS product management and/or take a course from platforms like reforge who focus more on product-led-growth programs 

To get into a SaaS-based company without prior experience, focus on highlighting transferable skills and demonstrating a strong understanding of the SaaS model and its market dynamics. As a starting point, emphasize core competencies like customer-centric thinking, strategic planning, and data-driven decision-making. For a Product Manager role, it's crucial to showcase your PM competencies, such as product lifecycle management, cross-functional collaboration, and agile methodologies. Additionally, showcasing a proactive approach to learning about SaaS-specific challenges, such as customer retention strategies, cloud technologies, and subscription-based revenue models, can be a significant advantage. Networking within the industry and gaining certifications or training related to SaaS can also bolster your profile.